


My Friend Jacob

by VivaJayne



Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Banter, Camp, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Mutual Pining, Mystery, Romance, Summer Vacation, Twilight Team Jacob, Vampires, Werewolves, horror movie au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:40:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 62,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25731511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VivaJayne/pseuds/VivaJayne
Summary: Campy Horror Movie AU: Recent high school graduate Bella Swan didn't think life could get any better. She has great friends, a hapless but doting father, and she was going to her dream college in the fall. But when a string of mysterious disappearances threatens her summer vacation, Bella, along with her werewolf best friend and her vampire ex-boyfriend’s family, must figure out who’s behind it all… before anyone else turns up dead. Bella x Jacob
Relationships: Jacob Black/Bella Swan
Comments: 14
Kudos: 49





	1. Sleepaway Camp

**Author's Note:**

> In honour of the release of Midnight Sun and the Twilight renaissance, I thought it would be fun to return to the fandom that got me started on fanfiction almost 12 years ago. This is a concept that I came up with and abandoned in 2012, but when I heard about Midnight Sun's upcoming release, I knew I had to pick up the idea again. I hope you enjoy!

“Jacob?” I whispered into the darkness. For a long time, all that answered was silence- the kind of silence that closed in on your ear drums like cotton. Not very promising. I tried again.

“Jacob?”

This time, the cot beside mine shifted under a considerable weight and I could hear the crisp sound of sheets being ruffled and pulled. Now I was getting somewhere.

“Hrmph?” Jake’s voice was obviously laden with sleep and I was doubtful he was actually coherent, but I figured this was the best I was going to get for now.

“We remembered the duct tape, right?” I asked, looking around the living room cautiously. Jake mumbled a non-committal reply and rolled over again, his breathing evening out within seconds. I sighed and shifted up on my elbow to try again. “Jake!”

“Mm... yeah?” He groaned, his consciousness struggling not to get lost again in the haze of receding sleep. He lifted his arms above his head in an impressive stretch and let them fall to his sides again in one smooth movement.

“And you’re sure the honey wasn’t too much?” I ran through the list in my head, counting and recounting our steps. Jake nodded his head drowsily, clutching a pillow to his chest and burying his nose in it rather than answering my question. Annoyance bubbled in my throat. Looking beside me, I caught sight of my own pillow and raised it high above my head, flinging it at Jacob’s slackened face. “Jacob Ephraim Black!”

“What?” He snapped, finally sitting up in bed and rubbing the sleep pointedly from his eyes. I crossed my arms and shot a glare at him. He returned it with one of his own, obviously not happy about the interruption of his beauty sleep.

“I’m _trying_ to make sure we didn’t forget anything!” I stage-whispered. “You remember what happened last time?” I fixed him with a pointed stare as I relived the last time Jacob slept over and we pulled a practical joke on Charlie.

“It was an honest mistake; anybody could’ve done it!” Jake defended, flopping back onto his pillow. He folded his arms behind his head, uttering an oath under his breath. The previous prank we’d come up with took a downward spiral when Jacob placed the wrong thing in the right place, resulting in a very angry me and a decidedly dry Charlie in fits of laughter at a dishevelled looking Bella.

“Yeah well we can’t mess up with this one; we’re losing by two points because of that mishap!” I insisted, running through a mental check list of the things we’d done only an hour ago.

Our summer fun had come from a running battle between Charlie, Billy, Jacob and I to see who could successfully pull the most pranks by the end of August and so far, Billy and Charlie were winning. The most frustrating part was that their points were coming from little insufficient things like whoopee cushions and buckets of water in doorways. Tonight, however, Jacob and I had stayed up until 4 in the morning- two hours before Charlie ‘set off for work’. We swiftly and sneakily set up a multitude of joking gems that would put us back in the lead by at least three.

If they all worked.

“Sure, sure,” Jake shrugged, yawning loudly. “Don’t worry Bells, we’ve got this cat back in the bag and even added a few extra ties to keep it there.”

I rolled my eyes at his nonchalance, but in my heart, I knew he was right. As a start, while Billy slept soundly in my room, we’d removed the wheels on his wheelchair, slathered honey on the floor and the wheelchair seat, covered him in post-it notes that said “WE WIN” in block letters, and placed his hand in warm water. That last one was a bit crude for my tastes, but Jake was absolutely devoted to the idea.

“Alright, whatever you say Jake.” I sighed, falling back onto the bed. Moving on to Charlie, we’d played the classic ‘shaving cream and feather’ prank, along with strategically suspending a frightening clown mask just above his face, setting his alarm clock for 6am even though he had the day off, hiding said alarm clock from view, duct-taping newspaper across the door-frame and filling the space between the door and the paper with foam peanuts. To top it all off, we also sealed the door closed with a layer of saran wrap over the newspaper.

“Man, in about an hour Charlie won’t know what hit him!” Jake chuckled, clearly awake and envisioning Charlie’s face as he tries to bust through the newspaper wall only to discover saran wrap on the other side. I couldn’t stop my smile either- we had definitely out-done ourselves on this one.

“Do you think we went too far with the clown mask?” I mused, twirling my hair around my index finger in thought. The clown mask had been Jake’s idea, and the alarm clock had been mine.

“Bella, it’s not _possible_ to go too far this late in the game.” Jacob insisted, glancing over at me with a look that said ‘are you insane?’ “We’re gonna be gone for a week and then classes start up. We’ve got to get ahead before we go!”

I almost laughed at his persistence. If anything, I knew that Jacob and Billy were beyond competitive with each other, and being best friends with Jacob had passed on that aggressive competition to me and Charlie.

“Angela will kill us if we’re late tomorrow,” I reminded him, “so you’d better hope we don’t get grounded in the morning.”

“Charlie’s a good sport,” Jake sniffed. “Besides, I’ve pulled the honey thing on Dad before. He gave me the idea in the first place.”

“If you say so.”

Angela Weber is one of my friends that I hang out with during school hours. Jacob and his crew went to school on the Rez, making it difficult for us to spend much time together during the day. Last week, Angela sent me a text while I was in La Push asking if I wanted to go to her beach house with the rest of the group and, naturally, I could invite Jake and the Pack to tag along too.

With everyone going off to college in the fall, we all jumped at the opportunity.

Jake was already falling asleep again, maddeningly unconcerned. I shook my head and curled onto my side, settling in for the short hour we had left until morning.

I’d changed so much in the few years since I’d moved back to Forks. Despite a few hiccups in the road, I was happier. Freer, even. Jake and I were both going to the same college, and I finally felt like I knew who I was, who I would be. I had friends, I had a social life, I even had a little bit of confidence, and I could attribute almost all of that to my strong friendship with the lumbering oaf sleeping next to me.

I closed my eyes and let my mind relax, eventually falling asleep to the sound of Jacob’s even breathing, and the soft heat I could feel radiating from his body even from the other bed.

I guess that’s what you get when you have a werewolf as a best friend.

.

“ _Jacob! Bell-_!”

I shot upright in my bed to a startled scream, followed by a number of loud thumps. Jacob rolled over at the same time I did, looking wildly around the empty living room.

“Charlie? What’s- oh Lord!”

Billy’s voice carried down the stairs followed by another thud from Charlie’s room. I looked at Jake just as we both realised what was happening. He shoved my shoulder and we quickly jumped out of bed, rushing to the bottom of the stairs to catch the show.

As we reached the railing, a grumpy Charlie opened his bedroom door to a cascade of foam peanuts. Jake and I giggled quietly at first, trying not to give ourselves away, but when Charlie tried to burst though the newspaper barrier and was met with a duct tape secured saran wrap door we couldn’t hold back anymore. Jake collapsed in hysterical laughter and I nearly followed with the force of my guffaws.

Billy emerged from his room a mere two seconds later, his wheelchair newly reassembled and honey still coating the wheels. We could see him slipping across the floor, but Jake bounded up the staircase and blocked him before he could even come close to falling. He shot us an approving grin as we waited for Charlie to gather himself. Once he had, he tore down the saran wrap (with some difficulty) and emerged with an unreadable expression on his sleep-deprived face.

Jake and I had sobered by this time, but the look on Charlie’s face tipped us over the edge again. I met Jake at the top of the stairs with some paper towels for Billy, but that was as far as I got. The sheer defeat in Charlie’s eyes had us sputtering in laughter for the second time. Even Billy began to chuckle.

“Alright, I’ll admit it. You two did good,” Billy grinned, wiping some honey from his face. The remnants of our sticky notes still clung to Billy’s back, but it seems the warm water prank didn’t work as well as Jake hoped. His pants were definitely bone dry.

“Good?” Charlie spat, rubbing the back of his head. His mustache was in disarray, with shaving cream smeared over his cheeks and nose. “They nearly gave me a heart attack this morning!”

“Oh, lighten up old man,” Billy gave him a swift punch in the arm. “You’ll wrinkle… more.”

Charlie grumbled something that I don’t think Jake or I were meant to hear, but he didn’t argue. Instead, he dragged himself begrudgingly to the bathroom and it wasn’t long before we all heard the shower going.

“You know it’s a good prank when Chuck starts sulking like the geezer he is,” Billy rumbled a laugh, shaking his head. “Come on you two, help me down these stairs and let’s start on some breakfast.”

We did just that, helping Billy clean off the rest of the honey and post-it notes as a sign of good will. By the time Charlie was finished cleaning himself up and getting rid of the remnants of our pranking masterpiece, we had an array of food on the kitchen counter.

“If you think I’m going to let this go because you made me bacon,” Charlie announced, hopping down the last stair. I could already tell he was in a better mood. “You’d be right.”

We hadn’t just made bacon- we went all out. Eggs, toast, sliced fruit, hash browns, juice, the whole nine yards. The volume was mostly for Jake, who could eat his weight in carbs and protein, but the gesture didn’t go unappreciated by Charlie all the same.

“When are you two leaving?” Billy asked around a mouthful of toast. “Before noon?”

“In about two hours,” I nodded, checking the clock. It was just after 8:30 now; between the commotion, cleaning, and cooking, we really didn’t have that much time left to get ready. I quickly swallowed the rest of my juice. “Speaking of which, I’m going to grab a shower and start packing.”

I was up and away from the table before Jake could jump in and claim the bathroom before me. I wasn’t entirely sure what he did in there, but if I had to wait for Jake to get ready before I did, we would _never_ leave on time.

As it happened, we were still late. Jake packed his things the night before, even going so far as to pre-emptively stick some things in the truck, and I had a very clear list in my head of what I needed to bring, so I’m really not sure how we ended up barrelling into the kitchen at 10:43 with bags in hand when we were planning to be on the road by no later than 10:30.

“Wait!” Charlie barked, cutting us off at the front door. He placed his arm firmly across the frame, blocking our exit. “Go over the plan with me one more time.”

I almost rolled my eyes, but I refrained. Charlie was a cop, after all. This was protocol.

“We’re taking my truck,” I recited, shifting my backpack into a better position on my shoulder. “Angela’s parents have given their verbal permission for all of us to use their beach house for the week. We’re responsible for food and drink, and keeping the place clean.”

“Where are you going?”

“Greenville County.”

“Who’s going to be there?”

“My friends from school and the Pack.”

“Will you have cell service the entire time?”

“Yes, Dad.” Now I did roll my eyes. He knew all of this already, but after a certain fiasco last year that put me in the hospital, Charlie was constantly trying to catch me in a lie. I endured his questioning for the most part, but my patience only lasted so long.

“Any way we can prank you while you’re there?” Billy cut in, grinning secretively. He knew that no amount of probing would make Charlie feel better, so he usually came to my rescue with a jab or a change of topic.

“Not a chance,” I shot right back, relieved. “And now we’re in the lead.”

“Team BJ for the _win!_ ” Jake hollered suddenly, ducking under Charlie’s outstretched arm and sprinting for the truck.

“Stop calling us that!” I groaned, jogging to keep up. Charlie didn’t bother to stop me this time, shaking his head as I paused to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’ll text you when we get there.”

“Good luck pulling in the victory from 3 towns away!” Jake was in full celebratory swing, hanging out the driver’s side window and slamming on the horn. I sighed. “Let’s go, Bells! We’ve got a beach to crash!”

“Bye Dad, Billy!” I laughed, chasing Jake into the driveway.

My truck wasn’t much to look at, but it got me from point A to point B just fine. Underneath the thick layer of flaking rust, it was an almost cartoonish red. The engine sputtered whenever the RPMs rose above 3000, it ate through gas like a monster truck, and the brakes squeaked in the rain, but it was mine and I was proud of it.

Besides, Jake only had his motorcycle and that wasn’t going to get us anywhere.

“I wish you’d let me fix this thing,” Jake complained, slapping the dash with his palm. I yanked the passenger door open, ignoring the screeching protest of the hinges, and threw my bag into the space behind the seat. “Give it to me for 3 weeks and I’ll have it looking like you just drove it off the lot.”

“Not a chance,” I snorted, hauling myself into the vehicle. Charlie made me put a kick-step on both sides, knowing how balance challenged I could be. “The last time I gave it to you, you replaced the radio with that thing.”

I gestured vaguely to the sound system Jake installed, replacing the crackling cassette player that used to be there.

“That radio was ancient,” Jake argued, putting the truck in gear and pulling us out onto the main road. “You couldn’t even play CDs, and we’re well into the era of Bluetooth. It was sad.”

“I like cassettes,” I pouted, “they’re retro.”

“I think you mean ‘redundant’.”

I stuck my tongue out at him, pulling my knees up to my chest and resting my shins on the dash. It was about 2 hours to Angela’s beach house, so I was prepared to get comfy.

Forks, Washington was experiencing one of its rare sunny days. I used to hate the sun- living in Phoenix with Renee for years and still coming out of it looking like a sickly ghost had turned me from it. Forks was usually damp, dark, and chilly, which is exactly what I liked about it. That is, until I met Edward.

I visibly cringed, drawing a raised eyebrow from Jake. Edward had been dubbed my ‘sophomore screw up’ by the La Push boys. We had an intense, albeit brief, romance that ended when he dumped me and his family left the country. It was all a bit melodramatic, but hey, that’s high school.

Edward and the rest of the Cullen family had a bizarre tendency to disappear during sunny days. They said it was because they were avid campers, but a few of us knew the truth. That was yet another benefit of having a werewolf for a best friend.

“Need me to open the windows yet?” Jake asked suddenly, hauling a pair of sunglasses from one of the many pockets in his cargo shorts. I shook my head, donning my own pair of sunglasses from my glove box. Jake’s elevated body temperature was a godsend in the winter, but it made uncomfortably hot summers even more so.

I always knew there was something special about Jake, even before he turned. We’d known each other for years, but we fell out of touch when I moved to Phoenix. To my great relief, and (strangely) Charlie’s, we hit it off again immediately when I moved back and have been nigh inseparable since. Unfortunately for Jake, and me, I also hit it off with our local vampire bachelor.

What are the chances of that?

So commenced the most dramatic school year of my life, followed by the most dramatic break up of my life, and ending with the most dramatic rejection of my life. My best friend was a werewolf, my ex was a vampire, and all Charlie could focus on were my upcoming exams. It was a bit of a headache.

After all of that, I welcomed the sun. It meant that I wouldn’t be seeing Edward, and that always made for a good day. His family returned in the fall of last year, and he’d begged me to take him back. Unfortunately for him, I was perfectly happy on my own.

Needless to say, I needed this vacation.

“Are we picking up anyone on the way?” I asked Jake, cracking the window anyway. The truck wasn’t quite at the boiling point yet, but I felt like getting ahead of things. Jake caught me, rolling his eyes but not saying anything about it.

He knew how hot he was.

“Embry is bringing the boys and Leah in Sam’s van.” Jake explained, slinging his arm out of his newly opened window. “Emily let him borrow it. I’d hate to be there when Sam finds out.”

“They’re not coming?”

“Nah,” Jake laughed, “A beach house isn’t exactly Sam’s thing. They’re just going to spend the week getting ready for the baby.”

“They’re probably thrilled,” I teased, eying Jake over my sunglasses, “they get a full week free of you idiots.”

“Careful, you’re an honorary idiot too, don’t forget.”

I held up my middle finger, only to be met with boisterous laughter.

“Try to catch some sleep, Bells.” Jake reached for the space-age stereo, changing the source to CD. After a pause, a slow CCR melody drifted from the speakers. “We’re in for a long night if both of us are running on only 45 minutes of shut-eye.”

As much as I wanted to argue, I knew he was right. The lull of long car rides always made me sleepy, and even if we’d gotten a normal night’s sleep, I wouldn’t be awake for long.

The music filled the cab of my truck, drowning out everything but the constant hum of tires on asphalt as I closed my eyes, letting my head fall back onto the seat and settling in for an hour-long nap.


	2. Wolf Creek

“It should be just around this bend.”

“You said that three turns ago!”

“Just keep driving!”

Jake rolled his eyes, grumbling something under his breath. I didn’t bother to ask him what it was; I’d put money on some variation of ‘up yours’.

Calling the winding stretch of gravel leading to Angela’s family’s beach house a ‘driveway’ was vastly understating it. The path was a road in and of itself; I was honestly surprised they didn’t have street signs and intersections.

Once we pulled off the highway, all cell service went out the window. Angie assured me that the house itself got pretty good coverage, but that didn’t help up much right now. If we got lost, we had no one to rely on but each other. Thankfully for me, Jake had a pretty good sense of smell.

The greenery outside of Forks was sparser than the thick, dense evergreens I was used to by now. Here the road was flanked by maple and oak trees, weighed down with the fullness of their bright green leaves. It was different, but the wildly patterned branches cast gorgeous shadows on the grass when the sun shone through them. I spent the majority of the ride with my head hanging out the window.

“Now that looks promising,” Jake announced triumphantly, pressing the gas pedal with a bit more enthusiasm than I would’ve liked. I couldn’t see what he did, not yet anyway, but I could smell it. The air here was salty, the wind just a little cooler than it had been a moment ago.

We were definitely approaching a beach.

“Thank God,” I sighed, running my hand absently through my hair. The wind passing through the cab of my truck had ruffled it beyond repair- I’d need to take a brush to it again as soon as we unpacked. “I feel like we’ve been driving for a month.”

“At least you napped for half of it.”

Jake levelled me with a pointed stare. I pointedly ignored him.

My truck vibrated over the loose gravel, dragging us slowly down the winding driveway until Angela’s beach house quite literally sprang into view.

Well, not ‘literally’ I guess. But close enough.

The trees here were deceptively dense, so I didn’t actually see the beach house until we were practically on top of it. The only warning I had was a flash of pale blue, and then it was there.

Immediately, I was reminded that the Weber’s had money. It was easy to forget which families were wealthy in Forks, especially when compared to the Cullens. _No one_ had Cullen money.

But there were plenty of well-to-do households in Forks, and apparently I was spending my vacation in one of them.

The cornflower blue house was one level from what I could tell, and it was incredibly long. Tall, black-rimmed windows stood along the front of the house, from one end to the other, interrupted by the front door in the dead centre of the building. The windows were partially obscured by white, horizontal blinds that were open to the midday sun. The gable roof was covered in black shingles, except where there were large glass sky lights to let in even more sun. The house was beautiful, but what excited me the most was the wide, white wood deck that surrounded the entire thing.

Jake let out a low whistle, pulling the truck around to the gravel parking spaces lining the trees.

“I was a bit worried about fitting everybody,” he admitted, laughing, “but I think we’ll be alright.”

It looked like the Pack was already there, so Jake left the truck next to Sam’s old Dodge van. It was probably the only vehicle on the lot that could make my truck look good.

“Bella! Jake! You made it!”

I shielded my eyes from the sun, squinting at the front door to see Angela bounding down the steps to greet us.

She looked more energetic than I’d ever seen her, skipping across the lawn towards my truck. It was nice to see; once she started dating Ben, Angie really came out of her shell. She skidded to a stop about a foot from me, pulling me into an enthusiastic hug.

“You didn’t have any trouble finding it, did you?”

“Not at all,” I grinned, ignoring Jake’s skeptical glare in my peripheral vision. “This house is amazing! You said your parents built it?”

Angela nodded her head, her long brown ponytail bobbing. She was very clearly dressed for the beach, with a loose tank top and jean shorts that showed off her impressively long legs.

“Mhm, from the ground up!” She reached for my backpack, which I let her take. “Come on, I’ll show you where your room is.”

I scrambled to keep up, my sneakers losing purchase where the dirt gave way to sand as we neared the deck and the entrance to the house.

“So, this is the living room,” Angela stepped aside, pointing out everything as she talked. “At the back is the kitchen and dining room, and there’s a sliding door to get onto the deck. There are four bedrooms, and all of them have 2 double beds except my parents’ room, but Jess and I are taking that one. We don’t mind getting snuggly.”

Angela veered left, barely pausing to see if I was keeping up.

“There are two bedrooms and one bathroom in each hallway.” I glanced over my shoulder to see that, had we turned right instead of left when we walked in, we would’ve been going down an identical hallway. “You and Leah can have this bedroom here, next to me and Jess. My parents have an en suite, so you guys get this bathroom to yourselves!”

“Bells and Leah get a bathroom to themselves and I have to share with a truck load of dudes?” Jake groaned, coming up behind me and making me jump. “Cruel move, Weber.”

Angela smiled apologetically, but she didn’t offer a better solution either.

“Stop complaining, Black,” Jessica appeared then, poking her head out of the room just behind us, the one she shared with Angela. She looked like she just got out of the shower, wearing a damp pink t-shirt with her hair tied up in a towel. “All guys do is piss outside anyway.”

“Hey Jess,” Jake chuckled, slipping past us to drop my other bag in the only other room on this side of the house. Jess rolled her eyes at Jake, ducking back into the room and slamming the door shut before saying another word.

“She’s a bit grumpy,” Angela shrugged, following Jake into mine and Leah’s room. “The salt water has not been kind to her hair.”

“Life has not been kind to my hair,” I sighed, picking at a tangle absently, “she has nothing to worry about.”

The room we walked into looked like a hotel. There were two double beds, just like Angela said there’d be, and both were decorated with pristine white bedding and pillows. The furniture was all dark wood with steel accents, sharply contrasting the light birch flooring.

Jake tossed my bag on the bed closest to the door, the one that Leah had left for me. I didn’t mind, I wasn’t picky.

“Couple things left in the truck,” Jake told me, slipping past us again to make his way into the hall. Even in a house this large, Jake dwarfed everything around him. His broad shoulders nearly filled the doorway. “Which room am I staying in, Ang?”

Angela held up her hands, palms out.

“That’s up to you guys. Seven of you, two rooms, four beds. Figure it out amongst yourselves.”

“Seven?” I repeated, going through the list of guys in my head. By my calculations, there should’ve been eight. “Is someone not coming?”

“Ben isn’t back from Spain yet,” Angela admitted, a look of disappointment crossing her face. “He’d be here if he could, but his flight isn’t until next week. We’re going to come out again by ourselves.”

“If I have to share, I have dibs on Embry,” Jake declared, already walking away from us towards the guys’ hallway. “He doesn’t move, he doesn’t snore, and he’s as thin as a rake.”

“Why darling Jacob, I didn’t know you felt that way!”

Embry’s disembodied voice sounded from somewhere in the living room, summoning a caucus of laughter from the Pack.

“I’d better go get the rest of our stuff,” I shook my head, jabbing my thumb towards the living room. “This is only going to get worse, by the way.”

“Did you forget that Mike and Eric are here?” Angela snorted, “I’m surprised the house is still standing.”

Aside from the standard overnight gear- clothes, toiletries, phone charger, etc.- Jake and I also packed a few extras. Angela had very clearly indicated the weekend would be BYOB, and while Mike had announced he had a fake ID he was happy to use, Jake and I came prepared.

I pulled my seat forward, exposing the deteriorating blue top cooler that we’d hidden there. Charlie and Billy knew we brought it of course, but I didn’t want to tempt fate in case we were pulled over. It was filled with beer and hard cider, way more than I’d ever drink, but Jake insisted on being overzealous. We’d also stuffed a few packs of hotdogs in there, some water, and popsicles.

Angela told us there was a shopping centre not far from the beach, but I thought it would still be a good idea to bring some food with us. We had a couple of bags of snacks, and the ingredients for some basic sandwiches.

The cooler snagged on the seatbelt as I yanked it free, loosening the lid and sending beer cans tumbling to the ground.

Great. Just my luck.

“Shit,” I muttered, wrestling the cooler into the front seat. I dove to the gravel, scrambling to grab the cans before they rolled away or got punctured by stones. One was already spraying in a wide arc, completely unsalvageable unless there was someone in the immediate vicinity who could shotgun it. I wasn’t that person.

After grabbing every can I could see, I counted. And then I frowned. Even after I considered the one can that was sputtering foam, I was still missing one.

I scanned the ground around me, under the truck, under Sam’s van, and along the sand. No can.

“Where in the hell…” I trailed, shifting my gaze instead to the trees. There, just under the brush, I caught sight of something shiny.

“Aha!” I cheered triumphantly, loping my way over. I was about to reach it and put on the brakes, when my sneaker slipped on the loose dirt. I squeaked, flailing my arms wildly to catch myself, but it was no use. My stomach flipped, and I started to fall.

“Careful.”

Before I could faceplant and potentially ruin the vacation before it began, my arm snagged on someone’s wrist and I was hauled upright. I expected to see Jake, shaking his head at me with laughter in his eyes, reminding me of my clumsiness and telling me to be more careful, but once I saw the pale white hand clamped onto my elbow, I knew that someone else had caught me.

“Sorry!” I exclaimed immediately, flipping around to thank my rescuer. I thought it could be Mike- he was the palest guy I knew- but I was wrong again.

The man standing in front of me, fingers digging into the soft flesh of my arm, was unfamiliar. He was a little taller than me, but not quite as tall as Angela. He had thick, wavy hair that I think used to be blonde, but now it was a dark brown. His eyes were as dark as his hair, hooded and sharp, appraising me with an expression that almost resembled disdain.

The strangest thing about him, though, was that he was dressed in dark, heavy jeans and an equally dark denim jacket, covering a black band tee. I couldn’t understand how he wasn’t sweating to death.

“Oh, hey,” I waved awkwardly, hesitantly pulling my arm out of his grip. He unfurled his fingers, but I got the sense that he didn’t really want to. “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Bella.”

The man stared at me, dark eyes calculating and hard.

“Your beer,” he grunted, dipping his chin almost imperceptibly toward the patch of grass I’d been heading for.

I blinked, momentarily taken aback. His voice was deep, shockingly deep, and he had a heavy accent that I couldn’t place. Somewhere South. Maybe Louisiana?

“Right, thank you,” I stammered, stooping to retrieve the can immediately. It was a little dirty, but otherwise unharmed. “Are you… a friend of Angela’s?”

Again, silence. I waited, getting increasingly uncomfortable.

“You should be more careful,” he told me, sticking his hands in his pockets. “Easy to lose things in the woods. Lots of stuff goes missing. Wallets. Keys. Glasses.”

“Thanks…”

Silence again. I was beginning to think this was the norm for him.

“Anyway,” I pressed my thumbs into the lid of the can, unsure what to do with my hands. “I should get this stuff inside. See you around, uh…?”

“Bells! You get everything?”

Before Denim Jacket could tell me his name, if he was ever going to in the first place, Jake jogged down the porch steps and made his way over to us. Denim Jacket spared him the briefest glance.

“Hey man! What’s…?” Jake trailed, utterly perplexed, as Denim Jacket spun promptly on his heel, gliding noiselessly down the gravel path to the highway. We stared, at a loss for words, at his retreating silhouette.

“What’s his deal?” Jake pondered, furrowing his eyebrows. I shrugged, mostly because that’s all I could do, and held up the can of beer.

“I saved this one,” I announced, gesturing to the other can on the ground. “But there was a casualty.”

Jake regarded me with exasperation, shaking the encounter with Denim Jacket from my mind as quickly as it had happened.

“It’s not my fault!” I whined, chasing Jake as he returned to the truck, grabbing the cooler himself. Apparently, I couldn’t be trusted with it anymore. “You didn’t close it properly!”

“Just grab the snacks, Hells Bells,” Jake laughed, shouldering the cooler with ease. He laid his hand flat on the top of my head, hitting me with that infuriating smile of his. “There’s nothing breakable in a bag of marshmallows.”

Jake ignored my sputtering, despite my most valiant efforts, and led me back to the house. He informed me that he’d won his argument, and he and Embry would be sharing a bed while Paul got one to himself, mostly because no one wanted to fight him for it. The other room was then left for Eric, Mike, Quil, and Seth.

“That’s probably for the best,” Jake lamented, “Paul snores like a lawnmower on rocks.”

“You’re still sharing a room with him,” I pointed out, much to Jake’s chagrin. “I brought ear plugs, if you need them.”

“Better give those to Leah,” Jake grinned wickedly, bumping me with his shoulder. “If Paul snores like a lawnmower on rocks, you snore like a _broken_ lawnmower on rocks.”

I glared after Jake’s raucous laughter, tearing after him as he sprinted for the house. I got the sudden feeling that this week was going to be a lot more eventful than I thought.


	3. It Follows

“Hold on! Guys, wait-!”

Angela’s plea went largely unheard, lost in the buzzing excitement coming from the boys. I shrugged my shoulders at her.

“Where is everyone going? Do you all have cells? What-!”

“Hey!” Jessica interrupted Angela’s increasingly desperate questions with a sharp whistle, drawing the attention of the rest of the group. “Turn your testosterone off for two seconds and listen!”

“Thanks Jess,” Angie smiled, her cheeks red. “Alright, we have 2 hours before everything shuts down for the night. Do we all know where we’re going?”

There were murmured ‘yes’s sprinkled throughout the guys. Leah, Jess, and I stood next to Angie, trying not to laugh.

It wasn’t long after Jake and I unloaded the truck that all mayhem broke loose. Seth decided that he was hungry, and Angie revealed that she hadn’t gone shopping yet. Housing a group of seven teenaged boys in a bungalow with no food was cause for pure anarchy, as we soon found out the hard way.

It only took about 20 minutes before we got fed up with the complaining, and everyone piled into the vehicles to follow Jess’s Mazda into town for a much-needed supply run.

“I’m going with the guys to the grocery store,” Leah sighed, shaking her head in her brother’s general direction. “I don’t trust Seth with a credit card, especially one that’s not his.”

“I’ll come with you,” Jess offered, shouldering her purse with authority. “I want to make sure we get some fruit. I have a feeling ‘nutrients’ aren’t exactly at the forefront of their minds right now.”

“Okay, so that’s Jess, Leah, and Seth going to the grocery store.” Angie made a note on her phone. “Who else?”

“Jake and I are going to get more propane,” Embry piped up, nodding to the hardware store across the street. We’d gathered near a stop sign in the dead centre of town, far enough from the curb that cars wouldn’t think we were trying to cross. “We’ll grab some stuff for a bonfire too. Pre-chopped wood and shit.”

“Me and Mikey are gonna top up the stock,” Paul grunted, elbowing Mike in the ribs. I thought it looked a bit rough, but Mike hid it well. “His fake ID is pretty good.”

“Text me any requests,” Mike added cheerfully, waving his phone around. “I’m mainly going for beer and vodka.”

“Eric and Quil can come with us,” Jess piped up, discreetly eying Quil while his attention was elsewhere. I caught her eye with a smirk, and she flushed. “We’ll need help carrying everything.”

“Then that leaves me and you, Swan.” Angie slipped her phone back into her bag, adjusting her ponytail so that it was higher on her head. “We’re going to the video store.”

“Video store?” Jake repeated with a snort, “What is this? The nineties?”

“Believe it or not,” Angie waggled a finger at him, “that’s all they have here. There’s no theatre, so they still rent DVDs and Blu-ray.”

“Can’t we just download them?” Seth complained, rolling his eyes. “Does anyone even own a DVD player anymore?”

“I thought it would be fun,” Angie pouted. I stifled a grin. “We have a Blu-ray player in the living room, and my brothers never let me use it. Besides, no vacation is complete without a horror movie marathon. What better way to watch them?”

“I’m with Angie,” I agreed, looping my arm through hers. I levelled Jake with a glare for my next words, making sure he could see the triumph in my face. “Retro _is_ fun.”

“I’m not putting that stupid cassette player back in your truck, Bells.”

I brushed my hair away from my face, conveniently leaving my middle finger erect and targeted at him.

“Let’s get a move on, guys!” Angie raised her hand, her watch angled for us all to see. “We’re losing daylight!”

“Slave driver,” Jess teased, rolling her eyes. “You heard the lady, let’s go!”

There was a flurry of confusion and yelling as everyone split up into their chosen teams, dispersing into the streets until all I could hear was the faint chatter of the others making their way through town. I turned to Angie, following a step behind her as she led me down a side street.

“How many do you think we should get?” I asked, stumbling over a stray twig in the path. Angie didn’t notice, but I still flushed. “Is this going to be an all-night thing?”

“I want to be prepared,” Angie hummed thoughtfully, chewing on the inside of her cheek. “We should get more than enough for an all-nighter, for sure. That way we have some options too. Fred will usually only let you rent 4 or 5, but I’ve known him for years so he makes exceptions for me.”

“Nothing too gory, please,” I begged, “scary I can handle. Gross-out stuff not so much.”

Fred’s Rentals was a tiny little store on the corner of two side streets, so I almost missed it entirely as we walked by. Angie made a sharp right turn into the building, nearly tripping me in the process, and that was my only warning that we were there.

Immediately upon entering, I was overcome with a rush of nostalgia even though I’d never been there before. The building was old, probably repurposed from a townhouse or something similar. There was a staircase in the back, leading up to a closed door with a foreboding ‘EMPLOYEES ONLY’ sign embossed on the front.

Between the front door and the back wall of the skinny room, wire racks were positioned ever few feet. Each one was teetering with stacks and stacks of DVDs and Blu-rays, and even a few VHS tapes mixed in. I stared, completely in awe.

“Help yourself to some popcorn, ladies!”

The crackling voice came from a man in his late sixties or seventies, bent haphazardly over an ancient-looking till. He reminded me of someone in a pharmaceutical commercial, with a chocolate brown sweater vest, pale yellow button up, and worn jeans. He waved us in the direction of a large bin of prepared popcorn, laden with scoops and paper bags.

“Thanks Fred!” Angie handed me a bag before filling one for herself. There was a piece of printer paper taped to the bin with the word ‘Free!’ scribbled in cursive. “Busy today?”

“As always,” Fred snorted, patting the counter fondly. He had a warm laugh, one that matched his friendly face. “Do you need a basket today, Angela?”

“Yes please!” Angie darted to the counter, took the bright red shopping basket that Fred produced for her, and returned to me. “Horror movies are this way.”

I let her lead the way, still munching on my popcorn. When I was little, Charlie and Renee used to take me to video stores a lot like Fred’s, letting me pick out whichever movie I wanted. It was a Friday night treat for our family, and I didn’t realise how much I missed it until Angela and I found ourselves doing much the same.

“Do you think we should pick good movies or fun ones?” Angie mused, her hand hovering between _Rosemary’s Baby_ and _Attack of the Killer Shrews_. I voted for the shrews.

“We’ve got a house full of teenaged boys,” I pointed out, grabbing the ‘best’ of the _Friday the 13 th _series and tossing them into the basket. I made sure _Jason X_ was one of them. “They’re not going to be paying enough attention to get the really good ones. Let’s grab some classics and a few low budgets.”

“Good plan,” Angie agreed, dropping a copy of _Lake Placid_ into the pile.

We browsed separately for a while, occasionally holding up options for the other’s opinion. I was pretty satisfied with my choices so far, but Angie seemed determined to empty every rack.

I was debating whether remakes would be a good addition when the cover of another movie caught my eye.

It wasn’t a horror movie; probably some kind of drama, judging by the cover. I didn’t even notice the name of the film, just the actor pictured front and centre.

The man was in his early twenties, dressed in all denim, and looked eerily familiar. It clearly wasn’t the same guy I’d seen earlier, but it did remind me of how unsettled I felt after meeting him.

“Hey Angie?”

She popped up from behind a rack to my left, struggling under the weight of choosing between _Scream_ and _Ice Spiders._ In the end, she chose both.

“What’s up?”

“At the risk of accidentally insulting one of your friends,” I began, hoping against hope that she didn’t know Denim Jacket that well. “Who’s the creepy guy in jean couture?”

Angie looked like she was stumped for a minute, but then recognition dawned on her face.

“Oh, that’s Corey.” She shrugged, sidling up next to me to see what I’d found. I dumped four movies into her basket, all of which she approved of. “Supposedly he’s one of Eric’s family friends. They both have beach houses just down the road from here.”

“Is he going to stay with us?” I frowned, trying to keep my lack of enthusiasm to a minimum. Luckily, Angie was on my side.

“Not a chance,” she snorted, “but when I say ‘just down the road’, I mean it. Corey’s family owns the beach house next door. You can’t see it from ours, but if you go next to the water you can make it out through the trees. I have a feeling he’s going to be annoyingly present during the day.”

“Great.”

“I know, right?” It looked like Angie had enough movies for 3 or 4 all-nighters, which apparently was finally enough for her to start heading towards the till. “Maybe I’ll ask Eric about him, see what his deal is. He gives me ‘I miss when Ozzy bit the heads off bats’ vibes.”

I coughed out a surprised laugh.

“That’s _exactly_ the kind of vibe he gives off.”

“I’m not too worried about him.” Fred was prepared for Angie’s massive order, having already laid out enough plastic bags to fit them all. “The second he gets on Paul’s bad side he’ll be chased out of here anyway.”

“Good thing it’s not hard to get on Paul’s bad side.” I agreed, glancing to the nearest rack. I wasn’t really looking for anything more, but a bitter smile lit my face when my eyes fell on a copy of _Salem’s Lot._ I nicked it from the shelf, holding it up for Angie to see. “What about this one?”

“Toss it on the counter, Swan.”

.

By the time we were all checked out, most of the other shops were closing.

Angie made a mad dash for the car, instructing me to wait for her next to Fred’s. Apparently, I was much closer to the grocery store than Jess’s Mazda was. Once she had the rentals safely in the trunk, she’d loop back around and we’d go meet up with the others.

I didn’t mind waiting by myself. I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to get much alone time over the next week.

As I waited, the little town fell asleep around me. The name made sense the longer I stood- there were dozens of Greenville’s across the US, and this one was as unassuming as the commonality suggested. Less and less people trickled out of the shops on either side of the street, strolling lazily to their cars or making their way home on foot. I got the impression that things didn’t speed up much around here, not even in what should be tourist season for the coast.

The sun sagged below the clouds, casting the world in a deep orange glow. It was nice, having the summer heat on my skin. For maybe the first time in my life, I wished I was at the beach so I could sunbathe. Hopefully we’d get back to the house in time for me to do just that while supper was being cooked.

In lieu of a towel spread across the sand, I leaned back against the exterior wall of Fred’s and closed my eyes.

The others were probably done by now, at least everyone who didn’t go grocery shopping. As soon as Angie was back, we could head out and fire up the BBQ before sunset.

Where was Angie, anyway?

I realised with a pang of worry that she’d been gone for far longer than I’d been expecting. She shouldn’t have gotten lost- Angie knew this town better than any of us. I bit my lip; any number of things could’ve happened, and not all of them were bad. I was probably overreacting.

Still, a quick text couldn’t hurt, right?

I pulled out my phone, found Angie’s number, and asked her for an ETA. She wouldn’t answer if she was driving, but if she’d gotten caught up somewhere then she could at least let me know.

I sank back against the wall, my stomach uneasy. I was a worrier, I always had been.

Minutes ticked by as the sun inched lower, darkening from orange to a light, shimmering purple. The colours were gorgeous, but I couldn’t properly appreciate them.

_Click._

My head snapped up. What was…?

There was no one on the street but me, every other patron having dispersed long ago. The shops around me were hollow, dark, and quiet, even their workers having clocked out as soon as the last customer was out the door. It should’ve been easy, then, to spot anyone or anything that could’ve made that noise. And yet, I was alone.

A soft breeze whipped between the buildings, chilling my skin and raising gooseflesh along my arms.

_Click._

The sound came again, this time from somewhere to my left, the direction Angie went. I peered into the thickening twilight, trying to pick out anything out of the ordinary. Again, I came up empty.

The town no longer felt like it was sleeping to me, more like it had died. The air was suffocating me with stillness, reminding me of the deserted cities in zombie flicks. I knew that was impossible; I’d seen the occupants for myself not an hour ago. A shiver ran down my spine nonetheless.

The streets had cleared out _fast_ though, didn’t they? Was that weird? It felt weird.

_Click._

I whirled, the sound coming from less than a meter away. I marched in the direction of the noise, swallowing my nerves and plastering a brave face on, but there was nothing there.

I decided I couldn’t wait outside anymore. I was freaking out over nothing, I was sure, but if I stayed near that wall any longer, I was likely to bolt. Then Angie would never find me.

Fred’s was closest, and I was fairly positive I hadn’t seen him leave. It was after closing time, but maybe if I explained the situation, he’d take pity on me. It was worth a try, at least.

The door brought up solid under my palm, and a few test knocks told me that even if Fred was still here, he wouldn’t be answering me anytime soon.

_Click. Click. Click._

“Is somebody there?” I croaked, hating myself immediately. I sounded pathetic, and worse, what if someone called back?

To my relief- or dismay, I hadn’t decided yet- no one did.

“Ugh, come _on_ Bella!” I shook myself, taking a deep breath. If Jake could see me now, I’d never hear the end of the ridicule.

Jake!

Why didn’t I think of this sooner? Angie may be too busy to answer, but Jake wouldn’t! I could call him, find out where he is, and start making my way there. Then we could meet up with Angie whenever she finally came back. Even if Jake teased me, it was better than panicking alone.

I yanked my phone out of my pocket again, finger posed on my recent contacts.

“What are you doing?”

I jumped, and yelped, not necessarily in that order.

“Angie!”

“Sorry I took so long,” she shrugged, eying me with apparent skepticism. I didn’t blame her, I probably looked like a frightened cat. “Jess has the keys, so I couldn’t actually drive back. I had to slip the bags in through the open window.”

“Oh,” I sighed, feeling the tension evaporate from my body immediately. “No problem. I was starting to think you got lost.”

I hesitantly glanced over my shoulder, in the direction of the clicking noise. I still couldn’t see anything aside from vacant storefronts and brick walls- maybe my paranoia had just gotten out of control after all.

Still, I found myself listening intently to any small noise, no matter how mundane.

“That’s pretty impossible in a town this small,” Angie laughed. She followed my gaze to the street behind me, looking puzzled. Apparently, she didn’t see anything either. “Are you alright? You look a little frazzled.”

“It’s the humidity,” I dismissed, hoping she’d believe me. I wasn’t the best liar, but since finding out about the existence of vampires and werewolves, I was definitely improving. Besides, it was nothing, it had to be. “Should we check in with the others? I was just about to call Jake and see if they’re done.”

“Figures,” Angie scrunched her nose at me, a playful twinkle in her eye. “I leave you alone for two seconds and the first thing you think to do is call Jake.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I crossed my arms over my chest, challenging her to say it out loud while simultaneously trying to hide my blush. Jake and I were more than used to this line of teasing, but he was generally better at handling it than I was. Angie really loved to point that out. “Am I not allowed to check in with my best friend?”

“Uh huh,” Angie rolled her eyes, throwing her arm around my shoulders. “Let’s move this rom-com elsewhere, Julia Roberts.”


	4. Black Christmas

“So, everything’s going okay? You didn’t get lost? Didn’t forget anything?”

I heard Billy’s chastising voice crackling in the background, but a quick thud shut him up. They were in Billy’s garage, working on some project or another, so I could only imagine what Charlie had thrown.

“We’re all set, Dad.” I promised, sharing an eyeroll with Jake. We were on our way back to the beach house now, having collected everyone from our chaotic shopping trip. The sun was barely visible beyond the horizon, which meant that it was very, _very_ late. Supper was looking more and more like a midnight snack.

“Make sure you’re careful in the water,” Charlie insisted, ignoring another string of jabs from Billy. I could almost hear his complaints- something about worrying too much. “You know what you’re like. If you slip on the rocks, you won’t make it to a hospital for at least 45 minutes.”

“Hoping to avoid any hospitalizations,” I shook my head, peering into the looming dark ahead. We were getting close to the beach house again. “I’ve gotta go, we don’t have great service on this road and when we get there, we’re setting up the barbecue on the beach.”

“Bring a fire extinguisher with you!” His bark was loud enough for Jake to hear this time, who snickered. “And tell Jake I said ‘hi’ and make sure he’s keeping you out of trouble’.”

“Hi Jake,” I gave him a half-hearted wave, making sure Charlie could hear me conveying his message. “Charlie wants to make sure you’re keeping me out of trouble.”

“On it, Charlie,” Jake leaned closer to my cell, which I held out for him. “We’ve got all the drugs, sex, and alcohol this side of the interstate! There’s no more trouble left to get into.”

“Okay bye, I love you!” I muttered hurriedly, terminating the call and giving Jake an exasperated glare. “You know that joke got old when were like… fourteen, right?”

“I thought you liked retro,” Jake shot back smugly. I couldn’t think of anything to say to that, much to my own annoyance.

The drive back from town was considerably quieter before Charlie called, and that was mostly my fault. The strange feeling I’d had outside Fred’s dissipated entirely once we rejoined the others and started piling into cars, but it left an aftertaste that bothered me. I wasn’t a paranoid person, but I was starting to feel like it.

Jake knew something was on my mind; I could tell by the way he eyed me every time he thought I wasn’t paying attention. He hadn’t asked me about it though, and I suspected that he wouldn’t. Jacob knew that when I was ready, I would talk to him. I always did.

The others beat us back to the beach house, already in a flurry of preparations. Paul was single-handedly lugging an ancient steel barbecue towards the open stretch of sand between the tree line and the ocean waves, looking particularly grumpy while doing so. I had my doubts that the thing would actually work, but Angela insisted that it was old, but reliable.

A soft orange glow broke up the wall of blue facing us from the beach, meaning that someone had already started the bonfire.

“I’m going to go see if anything else needs to be brought down,” Jake announced, leaping from the truck with enthusiasm. He didn’t like sitting still for too long, and we’d done a lot of driving for the day. “You should grab a sweater or something. It’s colder than I thought it would be.”

“Are you kidding?” I snorted, following him inside. “Cold? With a bonfire and half the pack hanging around? If I change into anything it’ll be something breezy.”

“Fair point.”

It was surprisingly easy to get everyone to gather on the beach, even with the added difficulty of trying to organize a bunch of guys with freshly opened beer cans. Jake and I’d barely opened the door before we were ushered back outside and towards the water with the efficiency of a crowd control team at Disneyland.

Barbecue was never my favourite meal, but there was just something special about eating freshly grilled steaks on a beach that made them taste that much better. Why the guys decided on steak- one of the most difficult meals to eat without a table in the immediate vicinity- was beyond me, but we all managed okay. A few near misses here and there, and one unfortunately timed slip that resulted in a sandy slab of meat that reminded Embry of a bad peppercorn-crusted sirloin he’d had in Seattle once, but the important thing was that everyone got something to eat.

Quil and Mike took over cooking for us all, since the barbecue itself was only so big. Whenever anyone tried to jump in and help, one of them would mutter something about ‘two’s company, three’s a crowd’ and pointedly ignore whoever was pestering them. We learned pretty quickly to leave them to their grilling, and instead helped Angela and Seth tend to the bonfire.

Somehow, I got left in charge of salads. Jess insisted on buying a bunch of premade salads in little plastic containers, all of which I ended up arranging and outfitting with disposable spoons. It was a little messy, and I definitely got sand in a few of them, but no one bothered to complain. It was all part of the beach-cookout experience.

“Did anyone remember to bring down the stuff for smores?” Seth piped up suddenly, drawing a rippling groan through most of us. We were far too full to be thinking about snacks.

“Seth, you literally have half a steak hanging out of your mouth.” Leah chastised him on behalf of everyone, setting down her own nearly-cleaned plate. “You can’t be that hungry.”

“Can’t have dinner without dessert.” Seth shrugged, daring anyone to challenge him on it. No one did, but I suspected it had more to do with the haze of laziness hovering over us than anyone actually agreeing.

“I’ll run and get them,” Eric announced eventually, pushing out of his chair and stretching. His plate was still half full, but that didn’t surprise me. Eric never ate much if he could help it. “Be back in a jiff.”

A couple of the others threw requests for various things in the house after Eric, yelling louder the closer he got to the front door. The requests only stopped when the door slammed shut, telling everyone else that they’d lost their opportunity.

“I don’t think I could eat another bite anyway,” Angela sighed in content, slouching impressively for her height. “That was delicious. Thanks guys!”

A murmur of repeated ‘thanks’ went around since no one knew exactly who they were supposed to be thanking. Cooking and set up had been mostly a tag team effort.

The moon was high in the sky once everyone finally settled, feeling a little of the after-dinner slump beginning to wear off. Eric still wasn’t back, but we weren’t worried. He’d been given a shopping list of things to cart down to us and, knowing Eric, he would bring every single one.

“Anyone up for a round of beach volleyball?” Embry asked suddenly, clapping his hands together so loudly that it startled a nearby bird.

“It’s nearly pitch black out!” Seth complained, levelling Embry with an incredulous stare. “How the hell would we play?”

“Hilariously?”

“We can all play tomorrow after lunch,” Angela interjected, her motherly voice taking over. Angie wasn’t exactly the maternal type in my eyes, but she was definitely the mom-friend of our group. However that worked. “I think it’s supposed to start raining after supper anyway, so that’s when we can start our horror movie night!”

“Ooh, horror movies!” Embry snapped his fingers excitedly, his momentary disappointment already forgotten. “That’s a way better idea. Let’s tell spooky stories.”

“Ugh, do we have to?” Leah rolled her eyes, “If I have to listen to one more retelling of Seth’s gym bag ghost, I’m going to pull my hair out.”

“I’m telling you, it stole my jock!”

We all gagged in unison, Quil even throwing in some impressive splashing sounds.

I wasn’t exactly thrilled about scary stories, mostly because I’d already lived through one with Edward. Most myths only skirt the very edges of life with impossible creatures and living shadows, but I’d gotten a firsthand tour. It was all a little old now, to me at least.

Not to mention, Jake usually found a way to scare me.

“Come on Leah, don’t be a wet blanket.” Paul grunted, a wicked gleam in his eyes. Paul wasn’t usually much of a storyteller, so I was immediately curious. “I heard a good one today in town.”

“In town?” I blinked, my eyebrows knitting. “Like, here?”

“That’s the only town I’ve been to today,” Paul quipped.

I bit down on my lower lip, tension forming in the pit of my stomach. The likelihood of Paul’s story having anything to do with what I experienced today was almost impossible, but it still made me nervous.

“They’ve got tons of local legends around here,” Angela assured me, guessing that I was a bit distressed by this news. She was right, but I wasn’t about to admit it. Spending time with everyone had assuaged my stress, but it was scary how quickly a feeling can come back to haunt you. “Was it about a widow’s ghost? Or was it the one about the sea witch?”

“Neither,” Paul shook his head, his smirk growing with every word. “This one is recent.”

“Alright, I’ll bite.” Jake laughed, crossing his arms over his chest expectantly. “Paul is clearly on the edge of his seat waiting to tell us about it. Come on, Polly, impress us.”

Paul spared him only a quick glare rather than an outright scowl of disdain, which already had me worried.

“I heard it from this old guy talking to his buddy,” Paul began, ignoring the comical expressions Jake was making at him. “Mike was in line with the booze, and I was waiting by the door. The two geezers were sitting on this bench outside, and they were talking loud enough for the whole street to hear.”

“Sure, sure,” Jake snorted, easing back in his chair. “Just admit you were being creepy and get on with it.”

Paul hit him with a proper glare this time, but picked up the story anyway.

“He was saying something about a news cast he saw last week.” Paul shrugged, already looking bored with himself. “They were covering this woman that went missing in the woods behind Main Street.”

“I heard about that,” Angela piped up, her spine straightening. Until then, she was as at ease as the rest of us, aside from me. “She vanished in the middle of the night. No sign of a struggle, no note, nothing. Just disappeared.”

“So what?” Mike scoffed, chugging the rest of his beer and cracking open another in the same motion. “People go missing all the time.”

“Yeah, well, apparently this guy’s friend knew her family.” Paul pressed on undeterred, “He said they were really freaked out, but it wasn’t the normal kind of freaked out. Not what you’d expect of someone worried about their family member; it was more like they were scared for their life.”

Paul paused, waiting to see if anyone was going to interrupt him again. We didn’t.

“Anyway, the guy starts poking around. Visiting them lots, mostly to help out but also to see if he could get to the bottom of why they were so scared. He tried to ask questions, but he was ignored every time. Couldn’t figure out why they were being so secretive, until the woman’s daughter cornered him in the shed while he was splitting wood for them.

“She was crying her eyes out, begging him not to tell her dad that she talked to him. But she was worried about her mom, and she didn’t know what else to do.” Paul’s eyes darted behind Jess, where Eric was returning with his smorgasbord of requests. I didn’t know how long he’d been there, but it was long enough to be as enraptured by the story as we were. “She said the police report was wrong, that there was stuff they left out, important shit.”

“Like?” Leah pushed. Despite her earlier reluctance, she didn’t try to hide that she was invested now.

“The woman didn’t just disappear in the middle of the night,” Paul corrected, “and she wasn’t alone the whole time. The family woke up to this big crash downstairs, and they all went to investigate. When they turned on the lights, they saw the front door open and a bunch of their shit knocked over, so the dad and mom ran outside to see if they could catch whoever it was.”

“The mom was with them?” Seth furrowed his brows, eying Paul with incredulity plainly written on his face, even in the dark. “Acting normal?”

“Totally normal,” Paul confirmed, “until they left the house.”

A twig snapped in the fire, making me jump. Only Jake noticed, giving me a knowing smirk. I blushed, shifting so that I wasn’t looking at him anymore.

“The kids were watching from the window while the parents searched the yard, but they couldn’t find evidence of anyone ever being there besides them. Then there was this sound- the girl said it was like an angry snake hissing- and the mom turned to look at the trees. She stared at them, really hard, like she was in a trance. The dad tried to snap her out of it, but she acted like he wasn’t even there. Eventually, she started to walk towards the woods.

“The dad tried to stop her, but she was determined. She ignored everything he did, everything he said, and once she hit the tree line, she was just… gone.”

A silence fell over us, thick and heavy. Only the spitting bonfire broke it, sparking and crackling with the ocean breeze.

“Bullshit,” Embry laughed eventually, startling everyone. “You heard all that in the time it took Mikey to get a case of beer? You’re full of it.”

“I believe it,” Mike supplied, much to Embry’s annoyance. “I was in that line forever. Guy in front of me bought a mountain of scratch tickets and wanted to do them all right away.”

“Alright fine,” Embry conceded, “but you overheard this, right? You never actually talked to the guy?”

“Why would I talk to the guy?” Paul rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. He was in a good mood so far, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t snap. I’d seen it happen under less trying circumstances. “I didn’t know him.”

“Then you don’t know why he was saying all this,” Embry shrugged, acting like that proved whatever point he was trying to make. “This lady went missing a week ago; there’s gotta be tons of rumors about it by now. He was probably just playing it up to impress his friend.”

“Doubt it,” Paul grunted, “he seemed pretty worked up. Hard to fake that.”

“But not impossible.”

Paul and Embry went back and forth for a while, arguing about the various reasons why someone would want to make up a story like that. I thought something was going to be thrown when Embry accused Paul of making the whole thing up, but surprisingly, Paul just laughed.

“Listen, Em,” Paul jabbed his finger at Embry’s chest, poking him square in the clavicle, “believe whatever the hell you want. I just thought I’d try to save your ass from getting kidnapped before you graduate.”

“Why would I be worried about that?” Embry complained, lounging back in the sand. I’d known Embry for a long time, which meant I knew he’d rather die than let Paul know he was getting under his skin. “One woman goes missing and suddenly it’s every man for themselves?”

“Not one,” Paul corrected, a hint of malice twisting his lips, “four.”

“What?” Angela gasped, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the arms of her chair. We’d all started to drift into our own conversations when Paul and Embry were fighting, but now we were all at attention again. “I only heard about the one!”

“Three more were taken over the weekend,” Paul dipped his chin, looking rather smug, “the most recent was last night. The first woman’s daughter. The police are keeping it quiet, trying to avoid a panic, but since this guy knew the family, he was told. All of them disappeared into the same woods.”

“But that’s-” Angela started, cutting herself off by biting her lip. I stared at her curiously; I wasn’t used to seeing Angie bothered by anything.

“Actually…” Jess trailed, twisting her hair around her index finger. “I believe you.”

“Et tu, Jessica?” Embry groaned, collapsing in the sand. “Am I the only sane one here?”

“If you are,” Jake chuckled, “then we’re all doomed.”

“No, seriously!” Jess stood up suddenly, worried lines creasing her forehead. “I heard something in the grocery store today, but I thought it was nothing. The cashiers were talking about some kind of disappearance, and that they might be closing the highways. I thought they meant for construction or something, but now…”

“Closing the highways?” Eric frowned, “If they do that, we can’t get home. The interstate is the only way out of here.”

A hush fell on the beach, permeated with the weight of this information.

“They’d have to announce that before they did it though, wouldn’t they?” Seth ventured timidly, “They couldn’t just… do it.”

“They could if they were trying to catch a kidnapper,” Paul suggested, “or a serial killer. Only the cops would know about something like that.”

“Bells, you were talking to Charlie today,” Jake announced suddenly, drawing all attention to me. He absently laid his hand on my knee, squeezing encouragingly. “Did he say anything about this?”

I shook my head.

“No, he didn’t mention anything.”

“Then that settles it,” Jake grinned. “There’s no way Charlie didn’t check out this place before we got here, so if there was anything to worry about, he would’ve told us. These are all just rumors from a town that’s really freaked out about a missing woman.”

“Told you,” Embry huffed, blowing his thick hair away from his face. “If anyone’s worried about it, we’ll just stay away from those woods.”

“That… might be hard.” Angie piped up again, chewing her lip so furiously that I was afraid it would bleed. “We’re kind of… staying in it.”

All heads turned to the beach house, nestled in the midst of a huge grove of trees. Trees that stretched far beyond where we could see. In the daytime, it was enchanting. Secluded. Peaceful. At night, though… the darkness permeating the air around the thick trunks was foreboding and sinister, reminding us of just how alone we could be.

Somewhere beyond that sea of mystery, evidently, was Main Street.

“Great,” Leah sighed, “we’re all going to die. At least I’ll get one use out of my new swimsuit.”

“Everyone just calm down,” Jake insisted, his hand still on my knee. I was trying not to shake; as much as I didn’t want to admit it, this whole thing had me freaked out. “Look, nothing is happening, okay? Quil’s been on his phone since Paul started talking, and he says there’s nothing in the news, nothing online, and Charlie actually let Bella come here. We’re going to be fine.”

All eyes turned to Quil, who nodded in confirmation.

“Let’s just enjoy our vacation,” Jake flashed that lopsided grin of his, the one that had a tendency to get him whatever he wanted. I loved that grin. Seeing it meant that, somehow, everything was going to be okay. “And we’re not letting Paul speak anymore for the rest of the trip, alright?”

“Don’t blame this shit on me, Black,” Paul growled, “not my fault you guys can’t handle your scares.”

The group erupted then, the tension shattered, and everyone tried to speak at once to say that they weren’t actually scared, they were just playing along. All except me and Jake, who leaned over to whisper in my ear.

“You okay?” He murmured, and I knew he wasn’t going to tease me if the answer to his question was ‘no’. Jake had a sincere voice that he only tended to use when we were alone, where the guys couldn’t make fun of him for being a sap. Whatever that meant.

“I’m fine,” I promised, offering him a smile. “A little freaked, but you’re right. If Charlie suspected anything, he wouldn’t have let us come.”

“That’s my girl,” Jake grinned, ruffling my hair playfully. I pouted, trying in vain to fix it. “Besides, you know I’d never let anything happen to you.”

I did know that, but hearing it still made my heart swell.

“Thanks, Jake,” I managed an abashed smile, hoping against hope that no one was eavesdropping on us. Angie was already poised to strike with another jab about our non-relationship; I didn’t need to give her more ammunition.

“Don’t mention it,” Jake spun in his chair, yelling across the fire pit. “Eric, where’d you drop those marshmallows?”

It was kind of fascinating, how quickly the mood can change in a group of people. Even those of us who’d been listening at the edges of our seats were soon pulled into the absolute chaos of a late summer evening.

My legs started to lose feeling from the rickety old lawn chair I was perched in, so I got up to wander around the beach. I didn’t go far, sticking to the perimeter of our little circle and jumping into conversations here and there. I was never much of a social butterfly, especially before I moved back to Forks, but everyone here was a good friend, and I felt comfortable around them.

The crashing of a massive wave on the shore drew my attention, pulling me just a bit further from the others than I’d meant to walk. Not far, by any means, but just enough to remind me that outside of our little bubble, the world had gone quiet.

This beach wasn’t like La Push. La Push was cold, dreary, grey, and rocky. Not much for swimming and sunbathing, but great for bonfires. I wasn’t sure which I liked better- this beach, for the sand, the sun, and the company, or La Push, for the familiarity and memories.

As far as I could see, the sand along the water was unblemished aside from the occasional outcropping of rocks. Closer to the smattering of beach houses at the treeline, I could see some chairs, empty fire pits, a volleyball net or two, simple things that families used on vacation. It was nice, seeing evidence of life in what was otherwise a slumbering town.

I turned back to the fire, but something caught my eye before I’d committed to the trek back. Almost directly in front of us, way down at the end of the beach near the shore, was a tiny boathouse.

I didn’t think Angela’s family owned a boat. If they did, it couldn’t have been bigger than a canoe or dory. The boathouse was about the size of an average shed, not large enough to house much. I couldn’t tell from here, but it didn’t even look like it branched out into the water. Maybe it was just a shed after all? The life jackets and buoys scattered around it seemed to indicate otherwise.

“Smores are ready!” Eric hollered, distracting me from my thoughts, “Who wants one?”

“I’ll have one- ouch!” I spun, colliding with someone’s shoulder. I was about to apologise when my brain finally caught up with my eyes and I realised who I was speaking to. “Oh, sorry Corey.”

He looked down at me, his expression that same cold, unreadable mask that I’d seen earlier. There was a beer can in his hand- one of Mike’s- but I didn’t remember him actually joining the party. Maybe he showed up while I was wandering and I just didn’t notice?

“Do I know you?” He rumbled, his phrasing a bit too flat to be a question. I blinked, scrunching my nose in confusion.

“Uh, yeah…” I trailed, my gaze inadvertently darting to Jake. He hadn’t noticed us yet, still in the middle of a heated debate with Embry on the merits of face shields in hockey. “We met earlier. I dropped a cooler of drinks.”

“I remember,” Corey all but interrupted me, his words clipped. “What I don’t remember is telling you my name.”

Was that all he was worried about? Did he think I immediately went to my room and stalked him on Facebook or something?

“You didn’t,” I agreed, sticking my hands in my pockets. I was fidgeting, but for some reason I didn’t want him to notice. “I didn’t recognize you, so I asked- uh, some of the others. They told me who you were.”

That same instinct, the one that encouraged me to hide my discomfort, also told me not to mention Angela was the one who’d spilled. Again, I wasn’t sure why, but I wasn’t about to ignore my gut.

“Why did you care?” Corey wasn’t wearing his denim jacket tonight, although it was certainly cold enough to warrant one. Instead he had on a white band tee, different than the one he’d been wearing earlier but still not from a band I was familiar with. Not that that was a difficult feat or anything.

I didn’t really know how to answer that. It wasn’t that I ‘cared’ exactly, more that I was just curious about someone I’d never met. Somehow, I doubted that would be a good enough explanation. Maybe Corey was one of those paranoid types; the kind of guys that don’t even like leaving their signatures on return receipts. That was all a bit ridiculous to me, but to each their own.

“I’m sorry if that bothers you,” I said instead, trying to diffuse the situation. “I didn’t mean anything by it. Just trying to get to know everyone.”

Corey grunted, but I was unsure if that meant my answer was satisfactory, or not.

We stared at each other, locked in an awkward silence. Maybe it was just Paul’s story, or the rumours about the highway, but something about Corey’s dead gaze made my skin crawl. I’d only ever felt like that a few times in my life, and nearly every time, I was right to be uncomfortable.

“Hey Bells, did I hear you say you wanted a smore?”

An arm appeared around my waist, bringing with it an intense heat and the immediate vanishing of my chills. Jake had finally spotted us.

“Thanks,” I grinned, feeling the tension drain from my shoulders. Jake held out a smore in his free hand, which I took gratefully. He spared a look at Corey, who returned it with little interest. “Corey and I were just chatting.”

“I hope I’m not interrupting, then.” Jake chuckled. His face was jovial and relaxed, but I could hear the underlying twinge of irritation in his throat. “I don’t think we were properly introduced before. I’m Jacob.”

He tugged me closer against his side, conveniently angling me so that he was just slightly closer to Corey than I was. Corey didn’t seem to take note or care, slipping his hands into his back pockets.

“Not interrupting,” he shrugged, nodding his head towards the fire. He ignored Jake’s introduction, sparing him nothing more than a steely, calculating stare. It only lasted a second, but it noticeably chilled the air. “Later, Bella.”

Before I could get out a ‘goodbye’, Corey was slinking away from us.

“I don’t like that guy,” Jake muttered under his breath, his hand tightening on my waist. I nodded slowly, taking a bite of my smore before the melted chocolate dripped down my fingers. “Did he say anything weird to you?”

“Everything he says is weird,” I countered, swallowing the rest in one bite. “Ever since I met him, I’ve had this feeling. I can’t explain it, but he makes my skin crawl.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jake furrowed his brow, lowering his voice in case anyone was trying to listen. “I would’ve been more careful about keeping you away from him.”

“I figured you knew,” I answered, dubious, “why else would you come over here?”

Jake’s jaw twitched, his mouth forming a thin line. I watched, curious, as the moment came and went without mention.

“Is that what you were thinking about on the drive here?” He questioned, confirming my suspicion that he’d noticed I was a little off. I offered a noncommittal nod; I didn’t want to mention the snapping sound I’d heard when I was already feeling needlessly paranoid. “Why is he even hanging around? Does anyone know him?”

I explained what Angela said to me, about Corey being a friend of Eric’s family. Jake listened silently, processing the details and tucking them away for later use, should he need them.

“Well, stick close to me this week, alright?” Jake muttered, running his free hand through his hair. It was wind-tousled already, and his fingers only made it stick out at odd angles. “He’s not a wolf, or a leech, but that doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous.”

“I’m probably overreacting,” I dismissed, feeling increasingly silly. When he’d barged over here, I’d just assumed Jake felt the same way about Corey as I did, so I felt justified in my discomfort. Now that it seemed like that wasn’t the case, I wasn’t so sure anymore.

“You’re not overreacting,” Jake promised, “I don’t like him either. I’m not sure what it is, but something about him gets under my skin. But that doesn’t matter anyway. If he makes you uncomfortable, that’s reason enough for me.”

I smiled shyly, reassured by his faith in me.

“Come on,” Jake gently jostled me, turning us around so that we were facing the fire again. “I left just as Paul was getting into it with Mike about beer versus stout.”

“Who was winning?”

“Does anyone ever win when Paul’s involved?”

The answer to that, we both knew, was a resounding ‘no’.


	5. Scream

“This movie gives werewolves such a bad name.”

Embry’s complaint was met with a chorus of agreement from the Pack, followed by some whole-hearted rebuttals from Eric and Mike.

“Are you kidding?” Mike threw his hands up, almost knocking the drink out of Paul’s hand as he wandered back into the living room. “ _Silver Bullet_ is an underrated masterpiece!”

“It’s _easily_ the lamest Stephen King adaptation ever.” Quil agreed from the kitchen, helping Angela with some impressively sized bowls of popcorn. She was balancing two in the crook of each of her arms, with another wobbling precariously between them. Quil had an additional four, filling the room with the delectable scent of butter.

“Did you not see _The Langoliers_?”

Laughter erupted in the room, completely derailing the argument.

The afternoon following the bonfire was spent playing beach volleyball and sunbathing, as promised. I, admittedly, didn’t play- Charlie’s warning about the nearest hospital had been taken as a joke, but I couldn’t deny he had a point. I kept score instead, marking down meaningless numbers on my phone until the sun was hanging low in the sky.

The perfect time to begin Angie’s much-anticipated horror movie marathon.

The evening was then officially dedicated to preparing the living room for the biggest sleepover any of us had been to in a long time. We ordered an obscene amount of pizza, fully stocked the fridge with drinks, emptied the pantry of any snacks we could find, and laid everything out on the massive glass coffee table in the centre of the living room.

Angela spent most of her time making sure the TV was set up properly, while the rest of us gathered as many pillows and blankets from around the house as we possibly could, creating more spaces for people to sit. Angela’s family had three large couches that could hold roughly 3 people each, so we only needed to get creative for the remaining 2.

Those numbers quickly went out the window when we made a pillow nest on the floor in the middle of the couches, and more of us ended up on the floor than not. Unsurprising, considering we were spending the week with a bunch of teenage boys.

We were already two movies deep, but we’d started pretty early so it was only around 11. Just in time for the surge of alcohol cravings to kick in.

“Cooler is almost empty!” Mike yelled across the room, like anyone else was going to help him refill it.

“What a tragedy,” Leah droned just loud enough for him to hear, shaking her head in my general direction. I stifled a giggle.

I was in the kitchen with Leah and Jess, each of us restocking various supplies. Jake asked me to grab him another drink since I was getting up to refill my own anyway, so I was trying to navigate the numerous liquor bottles when Jess sidled up next to me, leaning her hip against the counter.

“We should’ve all pitched in and booked a week in Aruba,” she lamented, nibbling on a carrot stick. She looked a bit like a rabbit when she did it, but no one dared try making that joke again.

“Next time,” I promised, though I had absolutely no intent on ever going to Aruba. “Maybe we’ll skip on bringing all the boys though.”

“Agreed,” Jess sighed, “well. Most of them.”

I was about to ask her if she was talking about Quil, when another voice cut clean through our conversation.

“Bells!” Jake interrupted, nearly hanging off the back of the couch. “Did we bring any Doritos?”

“I think so,” I called back, searching the counter as quickly as I could. I spotted the orange bag right away, nestled behind some Lays Original. “Got em!”

“Give it a toss, Swan!” Jake held his hands above his head, ready to catch the bag like a football. I didn’t throw it quite as hard as that, the chips landing squarely on the cushion next to him. “You’re the best!”

“I know,” I laughed, bringing my attention back to the drink I was making. Jess watched the whole exchange with interest, tapping her fingernails thoughtfully on the counter.

“Speaking of boys,” Jess hummed, dunking a carrot stick into a quickly dwindling container of ranch- she was about the only one touching the veggie tray, so I can’t imagine where it all went. “Is it just me, or is Jake paying extra attention to you lately?”

“No more than usual,” I shrugged, trying to keep my voice light. That was a blatant lie; a combination of the incident with Corey, and Paul’s chilling story the night before meant that Jake hadn’t let me out of his sight. I was hoping with the chaos of being on vacation, no one would notice. I guess I wasn’t so lucky. “You know what Jake’s like.”

Jess gave me a skeptical glare.

“Seems like everyone knows what Jake’s like except you,” she muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. “It’s completely beyond obvious that he likes you. Just stick your tongue down his throat already.”

There was a less-than-gracious snort from the couch. I frowned, glancing over my shoulder to try to catch Jake’s eye, but he was determinedly keeping his attention elsewhere. Jess had no idea that more than half the room could hear us right now, so I couldn’t very well hush her without sounding like a maniac.

“You know it’s not like that,” I insisted, feeling the skin on my neck start to flush. Leah was watching us as she poured herself a drink, a wickedly amused smile on her face. “Jake and I are just friends.”

“For now,” Jess huffed, her gaze lingering meaningfully on my blush. I resisted the urge to squirm. “I’ll never understand you, Swan. If I had something like _that_ drooling over me, before the night was out, I’d be licking melted chocolate off his-”

“ _Thank you_ , Jess,” I cut her off quickly, clearing my throat to cover Jake’s sudden inexplicable laughing fit. “I think I get the picture.”

Jess shrugged, retreating to the veggie tray for another carrot stick. As stubborn as she could be, Jess quickly bored of anything that didn’t directly involve her.

When she was safely making her way back to the living room, I hung my head in defeat. The Pack wasn’t about to let me live that one down anytime soon.

“You know we all heard that, right?” Leah winked, already confirming my fears. She slid along the counter until she was next to me, looking a bit too happy about the entire thing. I shot her a look. “Not our fault wolves have good hearing.”

“Not as good as vampires,” I jabbed back, noticing with some satisfaction that at least three Pack members bristled. Leah just rolled her eyes at me.

“I can’t _wait_ to phase again after that,” Leah continued sarcastically, pushing the ice around her glass with her index finger. She was sipping on a gin and tonic, the last thing I would’ve expected to be her drink of choice. I snuck an abashed peek at my sugary cooler. “Jess just gave Jake all new material for his constant fantasies.”

She was speaking low enough now that I suspected she was trying not to be overheard by anyone, including the Pack. From the way Jake had drifted into conversation with Embry, she seemed to be succeeding.

“Not you too,” I whined, “I thought you were on my side.”

“I am,” Leah laughed, putting down her drink long enough to snag a chocolate-covered pretzel from the nearly empty bowl. “But the woman is right. If any two people in this world need to shut up and shag, it’s you two.”

I afforded her a look that was half warning, half pleading.

“You know why we can’t do that.”

She did, and I knew she did. It was a bit of a low blow for a party setting, but I _really_ didn’t want to get into this right now. Leah appeared to understand that, shrugging in much the same way Jess had.

“Do what you want,” she insisted, unable to resist one last prod before returning to the living room. “But you and I both know Jake isn’t the only one with a crush.”

I held up my middle finger as she walked away, trusting that even though she couldn’t see it, she knew it was there.

My drink was easy enough, I just had to pop the cap off. Jake wasn’t quite ready to break into the beer yet, so he’d requested a rum and coke. Seemed simple, but according to him I always made them too weak. You’d think eventually he’d just get up and get his own.

I heard Jess laugh at something from across the room.

A simple drink, which meant I couldn’t put off whatever firestorm of thinly veiled jokes awaited me back on the couch any longer. The only thing I could do now was act natural, and hope Jake wasn’t stupid enough to give away the existence of his inhuman hearing for the sake of embarrassing me.

“Did I miss anything?” I asked as nonchalantly as possible, skidding back into the living room with two drinks in hand. Jake took both of them from me wordlessly, setting them down on the end table beside him.

“Only some boring scenery,” he assured me, slinging his arm over the back of the couch. He and I were one of the few who’d opted to stay off the floor- there were already a few of the Pack piled down there, it was bound to get sweaty fast- so we had an entire sofa to ourselves.

“Great, so I can just look out the window and catch up,” I joked, circling the sofa and giving Jake a disapproving glare. He was acting innocent- a bit too innocent for my liking. With any luck, this meant he was being smart for once and letting the whole thing go. However, if history was any indication, he was about to get himself firmly on my bad side.

And yet, he remained completely calm and relaxed while I sat back down on the sofa, leaving a bit more room between us than I did before. I was starting to believe the façade, but I wasn’t fully comfortable. Yet.

“Hey, anyone know where that fruit tray ended up?” Jake asked suddenly, drawing wide eyes from all around. I could count on one hand the number of times Jake willingly ate a piece of fruit when there were leagues of junk food at the ready. My guard instantly went up.

“I think it’s a bit late to be watching your figure,” Embry snickered, settling on the opposite couch next to Jess. She shifted to let him have the arm, but she didn’t move very far. I raised my eyebrows at her, but she either didn’t notice or chose to ignore me. Had something happened to make her lose interest in Quil? Or was this a ploy at jealousy that I completely missed? “You’re already built like a tree trunk.”

“Jealous, Em?” Quil laughed from his spot on the floor. I watched in amusement as Embry realised his intended insult had actually come across as a compliment. He scowled.

“I’ve got it here, Jake,” Angela chimed in from the third couch, which she was sharing with Leah, “all the strawberries are gone, but there’s still plenty of other stuff.”

She held the tray out to him, balancing it precariously above Seth’s head, until Jake swooped in and caught it.

“Thanks Ang,” he grinned, just a touch wolfishly. I felt my stomach clench. “I don’t really want any of it, but I think Bella would just _love_ the dip.”

From the sudden shift in the tone of his voice, I knew what the dip would be before he even lowered it into my lap. Jake’s grin stayed plastered on his face, a smug glint in his eye that I was sure I wasn’t the only one who caught. Nestled in the middle of an array of grapes, cantaloupe slices, and orange wedges, was a small bowl of melted chocolate.

Of fucking course.

Heat flared in my cheeks, from anger or embarrassment I couldn’t quite tell. Jess wouldn’t possibly guess that he’d heard us from just that, but Leah was watching with her mouth hidden behind her palm.

“I’m not really hungry right now,” I muttered pointedly, fixing him with a dangerous stare. Jake’s expression was alive with barely contained laughter, all at my expense of course. My only solace was that the rest of the Pack hadn’t been paying attention-

“What’s wrong, Bella?” Embry piped up suddenly, mirroring Jake’s delight, “I thought you liked melted chocolate?”

Well. There goes that hope.

“It’s okay,” I conceded, frowning meaningfully at Jake, “but overrated.”

“You gotta at least try it,” he pressed, sharing a secretive look with Embry. I knew that look. That look meant I was about to absolutely hate whatever happened next. “Here:”

To my shocked horror, Jake sank his finger into the chocolate dip, getting a good coating on it, before holding his hand directly in front of my face.

 _Of fucking course_. He wanted me to literally lick it off of him.

“Ugh, Jacob that is disgusting,” Jess complained, having not caught on to the battle of will going on across from her. “Now no one else can have any.”

“I just washed my hands, Stanley,” Jake shrugged, never taking his eyes off me. “Relax.”

Jess didn’t look placated, but I was too busy shooting daggers at Jake.

It was easy to forget just how _dumb_ he could be. Keeping the existence of wolves and vampires a secret was one of the most important things I had to do in order to be friends with the Pack. Sometimes, though, I felt like I cared about it more than Jake did.

He just couldn’t resist a golden opportunity to make me squirm, no matter the circumstances. He usually succeeded, especially in a group setting, but not this time. No. This time, I wasn’t going to let him have the satisfaction. Even if it meant securing at least another ten years of teasing.

“That’s so sweet of you, Jake,” I smiled as warmly as I could, blinking perhaps a bit too frequently. “I would love to try some.”

“You- what?” Jake was still trying to work out my answer, confusion marring the triumph in his face, when I did the unthinkable. I pulled Jake’s finger directly into my mouth. I didn’t even hesitate, the idea striking me in almost the same second that I executed it.

His jaw snapped shut.

Instantly I regretted my decision. I could almost _hear_ Embry’s taunts and jabs, firing strong and steady for at least the rest of the week. But I was committed now, and I wanted to make _Jake_ squirm for once. So far, it was working.

I could almost see his body freezing- every muscle locking stiffly into place. That was the _last_ thing he expected me to do, and I took great satisfaction in having shocked him into complete and utter silence.

Embry’s side of the room was pretty quiet too, which was also a small victory.

The dip itself was actually not that great- less of a melted chocolate and more of a watered down Nutella. I wouldn’t eat it again, but I was about to make Jake think it was my favourite food in the entire world.

Never breaking eye contact with him, I began to slowly lick the dip from his skin.

He wasn’t expecting that either, a visible shudder raking down his back. I could still see Leah in my peripheral, doing everything in her power to stop herself from laughing.

I admit that I lingered a bit longer than I needed to, flattening my tongue around the curve of his knuckles with a finesse that was unnecessary, but drew a reaction that I couldn’t replicate if I tried. Jake had all but turned himself into a statue, not even blinking at me as I finally released him and leaned back, smugly awaiting his attempt at saving face.

We stared at each other, me with my arms crossed victoriously over my chest, him looking like he might faint.

Slowly, stealthily, Jake moved a throw pillow into his lap.

Well that did it- the room exploded into an uproar of guffaws and whoops and cheers, some ridiculing Jake, some congratulating me on a game well played. I revelled in the win, trying desperately not to spoil my victory by blushing at Jake’s unfortunate bodily reaction.

To his credit, he recovered quickly. Jake knew when to take a loss, and was a borderline master at self-deprecating humor. Before long, the laughter had subsided to a pleasant hum and Jake was extending his palm for a handshake.

“Good game, Swan,” he shook his head, still a little rattled but hiding it much better than I would’ve. “It seems I’ve underestimated you.”

“And don’t forget it,” I winked, stealing glances at the other humans in the room. Mike and Eric just sort of looked like they’d missed out on an inside joke, focussed instead on the TV, and Angie was sporting a knowing smile similar to the one Leah was giving me. Jess was really the only one I was worried about- other than the Pack, she would be the only one to pick up on the significance of the chocolate and then be left to wonder how in the hell he’d heard that. But it seemed like we were in the clear.

“Did we rent anything scarier?” Seth whined, drawing our attention back to the movie. He was usually the first to tire of the rest of the Pack’s antics, largely because Leah would scold him if he ever tried to participate in anything too inappropriate. He dropped his head back against the couch and accidentally hit Angie’s knee. “This is boring.”

“I grabbed _Salem’s Lot_ ,” I teased, to a collective groan from the wolves in the room. “We could put that on instead.”

“No thank you,” Embry interjected, “I’d rather eat my own eyeballs.”

“What’s wrong with _Salem’s Lot_?” Eric pouted, “That’s a great movie!”

“I’ll skip the vampires, thanks,” Embry shot me a glare, as if to shut me up. I smirked, but didn’t say anything. “Give me just about anything else.”

“Zombie cheerleaders?” Seth tried again, having lost all interest in _Silver Bullet_ once he got a good look at the werewolf suit. “Did we rent anything with zombie cheerleaders?”

“No zombie cheerleaders,” Angie announced, rooting through the pile at her feet, “but I did grab _28 Days Later_.”

“Ooh, that’s a great one,” Quil clapped his hands together excitedly, “let’s put that on.”

“Can’t we finish this one first?” I pulled my lips to the side in a slight frown. “I was enjoying it.”

“You’re about the only one,” Embry rolled his eyes, snatching the _28 Days Later_ case from Angie. “And you weren’t even paying attention for the last few minutes.”

Another round of chuckles rippled through the room, so I decided to let it go. I got my win; no need to risk turning Jake’s ridicule on me.

I liked horror movies better than scary stories, for the most part. Something about the cheesy dialogue and lackluster effects made everything a bit more enjoyable for me. It would probably never be my genre of choice, but in a big group like this, I could see the appeal.

All of that went out the window with zombie movies.

I don’t know what it is about them. I dated a vampire, I’m friends with werewolves, I don’t believe in ghosts, but there’s just something about zombies that gives me the willies. Everyone talks about monsters and ghosts like they’re not real, like they’re fiction, but even though I know some of them exist, I also know they’re not invincible. I’ve seen Edward kill another vampire. Jake and the others are living, breathing, people, which means they can die. Ghosts, if they do exist, can be warded off or exorcised. But what the hell do you do about zombies? Not everyone has enough hand-eye coordination to bash one in the head on the first try.

Plagues are real. Viruses and pandemics are real. Can any known diseases create zombies? Not right now, but germs mutate every day. It’s not likely or probable, but it’s _possible_ , and that scares the shit out of me. So, I avoid zombie movies.

Tonight though, I didn’t have much of a choice.

Now that a widely accepted ‘good’ movie was on, everyone fell quiet. The only sound to be heard, other than the TV, was the occasional crunching of popcorn or clinking of ice in a glass. Angie got up at one point to turn off most of the lights, but aside from that, we were still.

Which meant that when my phone buzzed, almost everyone heard it.

I scrambled to pick it up before I got shushed, escaping relatively unscathed with only a few disapproving glares. To my surprise, Jake’s number flashed across the screen.

_You ok?_

I bit down on my lip to keep from smiling. I was still seated in the middle of the couch, stubbornly keeping my distance from him after his failed attempt at embarrassing me, but that didn’t matter. Jake knew me too well.

 _Fine,_ I promised, shooting him a quick half-smile. _Just really hate zombies._

I watched him stifle a grin before replying, shifting slightly in his seat.

_Come here._

I didn’t bother to even try to pretend that I didn’t know what he meant. If you were going to be friends with Jake, cuddling was par for the course. Besides, I knew he wouldn’t dare try to tease me again right now, not after it went so poorly for him last time.

As carefully as I could, I shuffled into the space he made for me against his side. Jake helped, using his arm to guide me into his embrace. When I was comfortable, his fingers appeared next to my head, brushing my hair out of the way.

“Sorry for earlier,” he whispered, his lips ghosting across my ear. I resisted the urge to shush him, knowing that the Pack couldn’t hear him speaking that low. “I didn’t mean to… uh, you know.”

I bit back a laugh, turning instead to whisper in his ear.

“It’s not your fault,” I grinned, keeping my voice as quiet as possible. “I’ve always been good with my tongue.”

It was a joke, but the eyeroll Jake gave me was a little shakier than usual. Maybe I’d affected him more than I thought I did; for some reason, the thought made me blush.

_You and I both know Jake isn’t the only one with a crush._

Leah’s words echoed in my head, dredging up things I really didn’t want to confront right now.

I pushed that line of thinking aside harshly, sinking into the warmth of Jake’s arms as much as I could, making it clear that I was done talking for now. Jake didn’t mind, tightening his hold on me and letting his cheek fall against the top of my head. Zombies were on the screen, and I was thankful for the physical support.

Aside from a few tense moments, I actually did okay with the movie. Jake supplied some bitingly funny commentary just loud enough for me to hear, making the whole experience bearable. By the time the credits were rolling, I wasn’t even shaking anymore.

Which of course, was Jake’s goal all along. As much as he liked to poke fun, he hated to see me scared.

Conversation stayed quiet as we continued to pick good movies. We transitioned seamlessly from _28 Days Later_ to _The Conjuring_ and finally to _Get Out_. I’d seen the other two before, and they weren’t about zombies, so the rest of my viewing experience was much less stressful. I still stayed firmly in Jake’s arms though; eventually the others noticed, but no one bothered to tease us about it. Jake and I regularly cuddled more than most actual couples.

“Is it 3 already?” Embry yawned suddenly, stretching his arms high above his head until a satisfying crack sounded from his spine. “Jesus. Feels like 10.”

“Speak for yourself,” Seth complained- he was the youngest, as much as he tried not to act like it. I was kind of surprised he was still conscious. “I wanted to pass out two hours ago.”

“No one’s stopping you,” Paul shrugged, kicking him sharply in the shin. Seth grumbled something about not being the first to retire, settling back against his pillows.

Angela was already popping another movie into the DVD player, this time choosing something a bit less attention-worthy. Something about aliens, but I couldn’t quite make out the title. Clearly, she was 100% serious on making this an all-nighter.

“No one’s going to even be up in time to do anything tomorrow,” Seth tried again. I felt bad for him; tucked away behind Jake’s bulk, I could easily sneak a nap in if I wanted to. Seth didn’t have that luxury, and he’d be damned before he gave in and went to bed before the rest of us.

“We’re going out on the beach again tomorrow,” Angie assured him. “We’ll just have a lazy day.”

“I don’t want to have a-”

“Everyone shut up for a second!” Leah snapped, her ire directed mainly at Seth. “There’s something wrong with the TV.”

A hush fell over the room as we all focussed on what she was talking about. It didn’t take long.

The already staticky voices of the characters were marred by a choppy hum, making it difficult to decipher what anyone was saying. I strained to hear, but even with everyone as silent as the grave, I could just barely pick out the words.

“This is why DVDs suck now,” Mike complained, aiming the remote at the TV. “What the hell is that anyway?”

“I don’t think that’s coming from the TV,” Jake grimaced, gently pushing me off of him so he could stand. I followed soon after, matching him step for step as he made his way to the big bay windows at the front of the house.

“What is it?” Eric scurried up next to us, the same perplexed look on his face that we all had. Angela was in the process of pausing the movie when we all saw it, the source of the noise barrelling directly overhead.

“A helicopter?”

The aircraft made a sweeping pass over the beach, seemingly headed towards town. It was dark, and difficult to make out in the low-hanging clouds, but it was definitely a helicopter. The panning search light was a dead giveaway.

“What do you think they’re looking for?” Jess asked nervously, less-than-subtly hovering behind Embry. I gave her a look again, but she ignored it just as blatantly as she had the first. “At three in the morning?”

“It’s probably the Coast Guard,” Jake mused, deep lines forming on his forehead. “Some boaters must’ve gotten into some trouble. Nothing to worry about.”

I knew he was lying, but I wasn’t about to give him away until I knew why. Maybe unconsciously or maybe not, he reached back and wrapped my hand in his, tugging me close enough that I could feel the tension coming from his shoulders. Jake was nervous about something. Very nervous.

“You guys don’t think someone else went missing, do you?” Seth guessed from the floor, refusing to get up. I had a feeling he was more bothered than he was letting on. “Angie said the woods behind us are the same ones people have been vanishing in, right?”

“They wouldn’t use a helicopter to scan the trees,” Paul scoffed, but it lacked the conviction and typical bravado he was known for. “They’d use dogs or something. Jake’s right, some poor asshole probably just got cocky on the waves. No need to get all worked up over-”

_Bang!_

We jumped as a unit, those of us still on the floor springing wildly to our feet. The bang came from the front door, and it didn’t sound particularly friendly.

“Coming!” Angie yelled, elbowing through us. Jake pulled me further behind him while Paul and Quil followed Angie to the door. Some silent form of communication had passed between them, something that I missed.

“Are you crazy?” Jess snapped, still keeping her distance. “Who answers the door in the middle of the night?”

“If there’s a helicopter going around, there might be an emergency,” Angela defended, though her voice wavered. “It’s fine, ok?”

Jess didn’t seem like she believed her, but she bit her tongue.

I looked up at Jake, reading the hard lines on his face. He was always protective, especially of me, but there was something different going on now. Something that made every member of the Pack fidget. Whatever it was, I knew from the way Jake and the others were subtly shielding the humans in the room that it couldn’t be good.

_Was it a vampire?_

The thought had only just crossed my mind before I dismissed it with zeal. The Pack would’ve been able to smell a vampire as soon as we arrived, and Jake would’ve told me about it. I had no doubt about that.

Angie yanked open the door perhaps a bit harder than she meant to, revealing a dishevelled looking woman on the other side.

“Angela, sweetheart,” the older woman sighed, clutching a massive stack of papers to her chest. She looked to be in about her late fifties, maybe early sixties, with greying hair and a significant pouch sitting low on her stomach. “Are your parents here?”

“Sawyer?” Angie’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “No, it’s just me and my friends here for the week. What’re you doing out so late? Is everything okay?”

Sawyer shook her head, knocking her thick-rimmed glasses out of place.

“I’m afraid not,” she admitted, her eyes darting down to the papers in her hand. “I’m so sorry to bother you dear, but I saw the light on and, well… It’s my niece, Cecilia. We can’t seem to find her anywhere.”

The entire room fell deathly quiet as Sawyer thumbed a single sheet of paper from her stack, holding it up to us. In it, we could see the picture of a young girl, not much older than us, with thick brown hair and a missing canine in her smile. She looked happy.

“Has she…” Angie began, her voice unsure. She shared a look with Sawyer.

“Fallen off the wagon again?” Sawyer finished for her, the wrinkles around her eyes deepening. “I’m not sure. It’s possible, but she’s been so good lately. And with everything going on, I wasn’t…”

She paused, sucking in a steadying breath.

“Could you keep an eye out for her?” Sawyer pleaded, shoving the paper into Angie’s hands. “Let me know if you see or hear anything? She always liked coming over here when your parents had that swing set by the front porch.”

“We’ll do that,” Angie promised, crumpling the paper a little in her tight grip. “I hope you find her soon.”

“Me too, sweetheart. Me too.”

Angie shut the door again as Sawyer made her way down the steps, locking us inside with the heaviness of what we’d learned.

It was a while before anyone spoke again, but when the quiet was shattered, all hell broke loose.

“This is ridiculous,” Eric complained, collapsing onto the couch. “Two people are missing, more than that if we believe Paul. We shouldn’t be here!”

“Cece is known for running off,” Angela argued, though her expression was less than convincing. “It doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

A rush of other voices drowned out Angie’s, all scrambling to make their own points heard.

“Hang on everyone, hang on!” I yelled, waving my hands in the air. Jake whistled through his fingers, giving me the floor. “I’m going to go call Charlie. If there’s anything going on that we need to be worried about, he’ll be able to tell us, okay?”

There were some half-hearted murmurs of agreement, which was good enough for me. I retreated to the next room, pulled out my cell, and dialled Charlie’s number.

It was late, but if I knew Charlie, he wouldn’t be sleeping. I was convinced he had insomnia, but he wouldn’t go to the doctor to get it checked out. Tonight at least, it was working in my favor.

The call rang once, and then went directly to voicemail. Odd. I checked my service- four bars. Not an issue on my end. Over at Billy’s maybe? Billy’s garage didn’t always get the best service, so calls were often dropped whenever one managed to go through at all. Texts were usually okay though, so I typed out one of those instead.

_Hey Dad, do you know of any investigations going on near us? Some of the others have been hearing things and they’re a little freaked. Can’t find anything online. We’re safe!!_

I added that last bit in to hopefully squander any panic, but I wasn’t willing to bet on it. Once it was sent, I held the phone to my chest and settled in to wait.

I thought about going back out into the living room, but I knew that as soon as I did, I would be bombarded with questions about what Charlie said. I couldn’t very well tell them I didn’t get a hold of him, not when everyone was already so nervous.

The door squeaked open behind me, Jake’s outline temporarily blocking out the light from the hall.

“Did he answer?” Jake asked, his voice controlled. I shook my head, worrying at my lip.

“Do you think we need to be nervous?”

Jake didn’t respond right away, sorting his thoughts carefully before he opened his mouth. When he did, he shut the door behind him so that we wouldn’t be overheard.

“I’m not sure,” he began slowly, coming to stand directly in front of me. I craned my neck to watch his expression, though I knew he wouldn’t lie to me. Not when it was just the two of us. “Something feels off. I don’t know what it is, but it’s like the air is wrong.”

“Is it a vampire?”

Jake shook his head.

“Not anywhere close,” he rumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’ve been sniffing around since yesterday, but I can’t pinpoint anything in particular. I think we’re fine, but I’d still like to hear what Charlie has to say.”

I reflexively checked my phone again.

“Hey,” Jake’s hands found the outsides of my arms, his thumbs rubbing gentle circles across my skin. “Don’t make that face. I won’t let anything happen to you, okay? You’re safe with me.”

I smiled weakly up at him, my phone still clenched tightly in my hand.

“I know,” I whispered, “I trust you. I just can’t help worrying about everyone.”

“Yeah, you’ve always been good at that,” Jake snorted, tugging me into a hug. Jake’s hugs were my favourite in the entire world, and not only because they were the most familiar. He was large, warm, and built like a lumberjack- his hugs engulfed me, drowning out anything and everything else. A hug from Jake was the quickest cure-all I knew, and, luckily, he gave them out freely.

“Thank you,” I mumbled against his shirt, burying my nose in his chest. He still smelled of the woods, even though we’d been at the beach for two days now. “I’d be a wreck without you here.”

“Anytime,” Jake promised, his chin resting on the top of my head. I felt the vibrations of his voice before I heard them, soothing my racing heart. “Bella, you know I’ll always-”

_Buzz!_

We both looked down at my phone, trapped between us. Charlie’s name flashed across the screen, seeming more urgent than normal, somehow. I hesitated for only a moment, opening the text with held breath.

_Bella, you need to come home. There’s a massive missing persons investigation going on, and they’re advising everyone to avoid the area until further notice._

Another text came in before I could respond to that one, flooding my screen with another paragraph.

_I called my buddy at the station closest to you. He thinks things are going to get much worse before they get better. COME HOME NOW._

My fingers shook as I held the phone out to Jake, trying to keep it steady so he could read. I watched the expression on his face harden from calculating to determined, his lips pulling into a tight, harsh line.

“What does he mean by ‘massive’?” Jake furrowed his brows, information whirling wildly around his head. “How come we haven’t heard anything?”

“They must be holding information back from the public,” I trailed helplessly. The police did that sometimes, withholding details strategically to keep citizens calm. Now though, it seemed to be making things worse. “What do we do?”

“We’ll have to head home,” Jake dipped his chin towards my phone. “Charlie is a worrier, but he’s smart. If he’s telling us to leave, then there’s a damn good reason.”

“Now?” I balked. “It’s almost four in the morning! And we’ve been drinking!”

“Not right now,” he muttered, shouldering past me into the living room. I followed on his heels, grabbing the hem of his shirt to stop him. “Tomorrow. I’ll talk to the Pack.”

“We can’t make too big of a commotion,” I insisted, though I wasn’t sure I sounded convincing. My throat was tight with worry, squeezing the words out with little conviction. “We need to get everyone home, yes, but we need to do it safely. If everybody starts panicking at once, we could lose track of who’s where.”

“I’ll make sure the guys keep it under control,” Jake promised, pulling me along with him. “Don’t worry, Bells. Everyone is going to get out and get home in one piece.”

I wasn’t sure I believed him, but I let him guide me to the living room anyway.

The room was still buzzing from Sawyer’s visit, attention split between a group discussion of what we should do, and frantically looking for details online. The first big scare of whatever we’d been watching was in full swing on the screen, but no one was paying it any mind.

“Overreaction or not,” Jess was saying, talking over whatever Quil had been about to say, “we shouldn’t stay here another second. I say we pack up tonight, try and get some sleep, and leave as soon as the sun comes up.”

“When have you _ever_ woken up with the sun?” Angie rolled her eyes, “But you might have a point. I don’t think anyone is actually having fun anymore anyway.”

“How can we?” Paul complained, glancing up from his phone, “This is ridiculous. Half of you are freaking out over nothing, so the other half of us are stuck listening to it. I’d rather be in school right now than have to put up with this.”

“Then it’s settled,” Jake interjected, his booming voice taking precedence over everyone else. I hovered near him; his shirt hem still clutched in my palm. “Look, Jess is right. Maybe everyone is overreacting a little, but the point of this week was to have fun and that’s just not happening right now. Let’s pack up, go to bed, and tomorrow morning we’ll all head out together. Then we can spend the rest of the week at the campsite outside La Push, deal?”

There were murmurs of approval after Jake’s announcement, bringing with it a renewed sense of ease. After all the uncertainty, we had a plan again.

“It’s too late for that,” Mike’s voice cut through the clamor of excitement rising in the room, bringing us to immediate and complete silence. His face was a sickly grey, the first real sign he’d given us that he was worried about anything at all.

He lofted his phone in the air, holding it so that we could see the news article he’d opened.

“The highways are officially closed.”


	6. Cabin in the Woods

Silence is never just silence.

There are a million different kinds of silences in the world, some pleasant and some not. Some silences were deep and meaningful, some were shallow and arbitrary. Some were born of content, some of anger, and some of fear. The living room in the Weber family beach house was filled with the kind of silence that made you squirm, the kind that infected you with its uncertainty.

This is the kind of silence that I hate.

After Mike’s discovery about the highways, the entire house shut down. It was like we’d reached our panic limit for the day and now all that was left was an eerie sort of acceptance.

The TV was off now, adding to the tone of finality permeating the air. No one bothered to move to their rooms, though I suspected that had more to do with the shock than any actual desire to stay together.

I looked up at Jake, trying and failing to read his face.

We were still standing at the mouth of the hall, waiting for Billy to text me back. He’d snatched the phone from Charlie pretty quickly after that string of panic-stricken messages and was currently doing his best to be helpful. Keep everyone calm. We’ll think of something. Charlie’s on the phone right now with the station. We’ll come get you. Try to go back to normal.

Normal? I almost laughed.

Jake’s arm tightened around my waist, bracing himself to say something. I’d nervously stepped into his embrace when Mike announced that the highways were closed, and he hadn’t let me go since. I was grateful for it.

“We should all get some sleep,” he suggested, keeping his voice even and low. It still shattered the silence abruptly enough to make a couple of people jump. “We’re not helping anything by moping around out here.”

“Jake’s right,” Angela agreed with a weary sigh, pushing herself up from the couch. “This is just making us tired and cranky.”

“I know things seem bleak right now,” Jake pressed, speaking with authority. It was a voice I rarely heard, one he primarily used with the Pack. “But Charlie is working on a solution to get us home. We should trust him to do his job and, in the meantime, try to be normal.”

“Normal?” Eric scoffed, echoing my own reaction to Billy’s text. “Easy for you to say. In case you haven’t noticed, not all of us can bench press Andre the Giant.”

Jake barely resisted an eyeroll.

“We can’t stay locked up in this house forever,” Jake trudged on, his gaze flickering to Angela for help. I felt an uncomfortable twinge in my stomach. “We’re already freaked out, and playing into the fear will only make it worse. We can still go about our day until we hear from Charlie, we just need to be smart.”

“Jess’s birthday is tomorrow,” Angie clapped her hands together a bit too suddenly, giving Seth a start. “We should go out for dinner.”

The room wasn’t silent after that.

“You’re fucking kidding me, right?” Mike stared, bewildered. “People are going missing, the highways are closed, and you want to go to a _restaurant_?”

“Why not?” Angie defended hotly, planting her hands firmly on her hips. “As far as I can tell from some quick googling, businesses are being encouraged to remain open. If the police thought there was a significant risk to the general public, they’d force a shut down.”

“Sounds like tempting fate to me,” Jess grumbled, her spirits even more sour than usual.

“We’ll be careful,” Angie insisted, shrugging. “We’ll go during the day, and we’ll all stick together. If anyone has to split off from the group, we’ll make sure they buddy up. Like camp.”

I could feel the hum of electricity sparking around the room, the calm before an explosive argument erupted, but Jake intervened before the fuse lit.

“That’s a great idea, Ang,” he agreed firmly, almost daring anyone to challenge him. I felt that uncomfortable twinge in my gut again, but I squashed it. “We’ll get out of the house for a bit and maybe we can get a better idea of what’s going on from the locals.”

The promise of potential information seemed to placate the room, dulling the disquiet.

“I _was_ pretty bummed about not getting to go to the spa for my birthday this year…” Jess mused, warming to the idea. “Dinner might be… nice. And there’s a lot of us. It would be safe enough.”

“We’d make sure of it,” Jake nodded, trying not to look too hopeful.

“Well that settles it,” Angela grinned, suppressing her nerves much better than most of us. “We’ll all go out for dinner tomorrow while we wait for Bella’s dad to come get us.”

“But right now, it’s late.” Jake made a show of looking to the clock displayed on the dining room wall. It was nearly five now. “Go to bed guys. We’re not getting anything else figured out tonight.”

This time, it wasn’t a suggestion. Slowly, reluctantly, everyone began to file off to their rooms. When I tried to do the same, Jake’s grip on my waist stopped me.

“Pack meeting,” he muttered under his breath, giving me a meaningful look. “You’re coming too.”

“In here?” I clarified incredulously. “The others could-”

“Outside,” Jake corrected me. “On the deck. Wait for everyone to be in bed.”

We did just that, milling about aimlessly until Mike, Eric, Jess, and Angela were safely in their rooms. Some of us retired to our rooms too, just to avoid suspicion. We hovered, tense and exhausted, until the soft sounds of snoring could be heard through both doors. Well, I couldn’t hear them, but I trusted the others that they were there.

The early morning air was crisp with dew, soothing my flushed skin. Jake ushered everyone to a corner of the deck that could only be seen from Leah’s and my window.

“This is easily the worst vacation I’ve ever been on,” Paul complained before anyone else could speak, making a show of crossing his arms dramatically over his chest. “You’re all acting like a bunch of scared bunnies.”

“Have you heard anything more from Charlie, Bella?” Embry cut in, ignoring Paul. I shook my head sadly.

“He doesn’t know exactly what’s happening yet,” I answered carefully, “which is already strange. Usually he’d just have to put in a request for the information, but they’re not letting him. Whatever is going on, they clearly don’t want it getting out to the public.”

“Why do we _care_?” Paul snapped, cutting off Embry’s next question. “This is ridiculous. It’s not like one of us got kidnapped.”

“But it could’ve been,” Leah countered pointedly. “We’re travelling with _humans_ right now, Paul. You can’t forget that.”

“It’s not a leech,” Paul insisted, agitation in his voice even though no one was trying to disagree with him on that particular point. “Whatever is going on around here, it’s human, which means we can handle it. We have nothing to be freaked out over.”

“The others don’t know that,” Leah reminded him, her words softer than I would’ve expected. It wasn’t a side that she showed often, but Leah could be downright maternal when she set her mind to it. “They think that they’re exposed, that they don’t have any protection. They have no idea they’re spending their vacation with a bunch of wolves.”

“Then tell them!” Paul snapped. Quil hastily hushed him, but Paul shook it off. I winced, keeping a careful eye on the door. “It’s not like they’d be the first outsiders we’ve let in.”

Paul didn’t look at me, but everyone knew who he meant. I saw Jake bristle in my peripheral vision.

“We can’t,” Leah countered again, crossing her arms over her chest. “Sam would have a fit if he found out we just revealed ourselves to everyone at the first sign of things turning difficult.”

“Well Sam isn’t here, is he?”

I watched as Leah and Paul stared each other down, their breath coming out fast and hard.

“No one has to reveal themselves,” I interjected quickly; I’d been around the Pack long enough to recognize the signs of a fight when I saw them. “Look, Angela and Jake have done a great job of keeping everything under control. If we can keep that up until the highways reopen or until Charlie gets here, then we don’t have anything to worry about.”

“How do you plan to accomplish that?” Embry sounded skeptical, but he was less dismissive than Paul. He was open to the idea of our lackluster plan succeeding. “Talking them down won’t work forever.”

“There are more of us,” Jake agreed, placing his palm gingerly on my lower back. Paul rolled his eyes. “If we can keep our cool, then it should spread to the others. Panic breeds more panic, so the calmer we are, the calmer they’ll be.”

“And if this keeps up?” Seth worried, sticking close to Leah. As much as they fought, it wasn’t hard to tell that they had each other’s back when it came down to brass tacks. “What if more people go missing? What if it’s one of us?”

“If any of us are stupid enough to be lured into the woods,” Paul scoffed, “then we deserve to be taken.”

“We’ll take turns scouting the woods,” Jake raised his voice just enough to cover Paul’s less-than-helpful suggestion, furrowing his eyebrows in concentration. “Just at night when everyone’s separated into their own rooms. We’re all together during the day anyway, so we won’t have to worry about someone sneaking off.”

“Will that be enough, Jake?” Leah frowned, angling her body away from Paul. I’d seen her do this before- she was making it as clear as possible that she was done talking to him. “We know how to protect ourselves, but they don’t. Can we trust them not to do something stupid while we aren’t looking?”

“We’ll have to,” Jake glanced down at me, searching for an answer that I didn’t have. “We can’t watch everyone every second of every day.”

“No,” Paul grumbled, mostly to himself, but loud enough for all of us to hear. “Just Bella.”

Jake bristled again, this time taking a deliberate step towards Paul.

“Do you have something you want to say, Lahote?”

A twinkle flashed in Paul’s eye, one I’ve seen many times before. He was baiting, and someone had finally taken it.

“Do I _need_ to say anything?” Paul quipped, squaring his shoulders. I sidled closer to Leah and Embry, nervously digging my nails into my palms.

Paul and Jake didn’t get along. It was no secret- the second and third in the Uley Pack line of command were as different as chalk and cheese, with equally explosive tempers. I’d witnessed more than my fair share of brawls between Paul and Jake, and while Jake usually came out on top, Paul surprised him sometimes. He was shorter than Jake, but he was stocky and he knew how to throw his weight around.

If Jake kept his cool, he’d usually win. However, if they both lost it, the fight was often decided by whoever was angrier.

“Why don’t you spell it out for me?” Jake taunted, using his superior height to his advantage. He stepped up to Paul, bumping chests and forcing the shorter man to lift his chin to meet his gaze. Paul did so fearlessly.

“I just wonder if you’ll ever get as tired as the rest of us,” Paul sneered, his nostrils flaring. Embry’s hand appeared at my shoulder, knowing what Paul was going to say before I did. “It must be pretty exhausting, spending every day of your life pining over a girl that you _didn’t even imprint on._ ”

Jake’s fist came up, faster than lightning, but it brought up solid before colliding with Paul’s jaw.

Quil’s arm hooked through Jake’s elbow, stopping him before he could complete his punch. Jake took a deep breath, and then another, staring down Paul’s smug smile with as much hatred as he could muster. My mouth went dry.

“If you have a problem with Bella,” Jake ground out, yanking his arm out of Quil’s grip, “then you didn’t have to come.”

“My problem isn’t with Bella,” Paul corrected, linking his hands behind his head. The picture of ease. “I just wish you’d see how pathetic you are.”

“That’s enough.” Leah’s low, steely voice cut through the tension like a hot knife through butter, dropping the temperature in the air by a noticeable degree. My gaze drifted between Paul, Jake, and Leah, biting down hard on my lip. Even I knew that we didn’t discuss imprinting when Leah was around. “We’re all tired, and we need some rest. Jake? Who has first patrol?”

At first, I didn’t think Jake would listen. He was visibly shaking, either from anger or trying to stop himself from phasing, or a bit of both. There was a minute, a solid minute where I couldn’t breathe, and then he took a step back.

“Embry, you take first watch,” Jake sighed, his breath coming out in short bursts. “It’s almost sunrise, so we’ll start again with Quil tonight.”

And with that, Jake stormed back into the house.

The rest of the Pack shuffled around awkwardly, mumbling half-hearted ‘good night’s and ‘see ya’s as they passed by me. Embry’s hand left my shoulder as he vaulted over the railing, stripping off his shirt just before he reached the treeline. I didn’t pay much attention, staring at the spot that Jake had just dramatically vacated.

_Imprinting._

I shuddered just thinking the word. It was hard not to, being friends with Leah. Everyone knew her story, tragic as it was, even though no one could quite remember how they’d heard it the first time. I did, though. Jake gave me a basic rundown when I was first introduced, but I’d heard the full thing from Leah herself.

Sam and Leah were a couple, once upon a time. Happy, in love, and just at the stage where they were meeting one another’s family. They didn’t think anything could go wrong, until Sam was introduced to Leah’s cousin, Emily.

For fun sometimes, I tried to imagine what imprinting would feel like. Jake described it as seeing the sun for the first time, but the sun was such an integral part of my life that I couldn’t begin to fathom what it would feel like if I hadn’t seen it before. Sam knew, though, and he felt it when he met Emily. He was the only member of the Pack so far to imprint, and no one knew how long it would stay that way.

Jake and I were good friends. Jake hadn’t imprinted yet. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why we’d never dated.

I remembered the pain on Leah’s face when she told me about Sam. I wasn’t as strong as her; I could never go through something like that and come out the other side in one piece. To have your heart ripped out of your chest, with nothing either of you could do about it? No, I couldn’t do it.

And so, Jake and I remained friends. Just friends. And I was perfectly happy with that.

“Paul’s an idiot, Bella.”

Leah’s voice startled me, making me jump a full foot in the air before landing rather gracelessly back on my feet. I hadn’t noticed that she didn’t leave with the others, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Buddy system and all.

“Don’t listen to him,” she continued, politely ignoring my scare. “He’s just trying to get under Jake’s skin. It’s nothing against you, so don’t take it personally.”

“I don’t,” I promised, shuffling my feet. As hard as it was to believe sometimes, I knew Paul liked me. He just didn’t have the most orthodox way of showing it. “It’s just… a shock to hear sometimes.”

Leah nodded silently, turning away from me to look at the stars.

“Remind me again why you and Jake aren’t dating?”

I smirked, coming to stand next to her and leaning my elbows on the rail.

“I think Paul summed it up pretty neatly,” I laughed, trying to keep my tone light. “There’s someone out there for Jake, but it isn’t me.”

“Jake doesn’t seem to think so,” Leah argued, propping her chin up on her palm. “You can’t hear what goes on in his head, Swan, but I can. He’s head over heels in love with you, and he doesn’t care one lick about some stupid imprint.”

I had my doubts about the truth of that, but I bit my tongue.

“Look,” Leah sighed, brushing her hair out of her face. It was short for the summer, but it was still long enough to fall in her eyes. “I know better than anyone how hard of a position you’re in. But Jake isn’t Sam.”

“With all due respect, Leah,” I smiled sadly, glancing at her from the side. “I don’t think it makes that much of a difference.”

We fell silent, listening to the breeze blowing through the trees. I thought the conversation was over, the reality of how tired I was creeping slowly up my spine, when Leah spoke again.

“Sam didn’t fight for me.”

I turned to her.

“After Sam imprinted on Emily,” Leah whispered, wrapping her arms around herself. I knew how difficult it was for her to talk about, so I kept my mouth shut. “I holed up in my house for a solid month. I wanted to understand. I wanted to know why the universe decided that I didn’t deserve to be happy.

“I borrowed a bunch of books from Billy, and I learned all I could about imprinting. There wasn’t much, but it helped me realise that, as much as I loved him, Sam and I were never meant to be together in the first place.”

“How?” I frowned, ignoring the early morning chill. The skin on my arms had goosebumps, but I did my best to focus on Leah instead. “You were in love.”

Leah nodded, tears collecting in the corners of her eyes.

“Everyone says that you _fall_ in love,” she murmured, staring hard at the wood beneath her elbows, “like it’s some kind of accident. They say you can’t help who you love, you can’t control your feelings, whatever. It’s not true. Not totally, anyway.”

She looked at me then, her face full of determination, bitterness, and truth.

“Love isn’t just a feeling,” she vowed, “it’s a choice. You can’t always control your feelings, but you can choose to give up. You can choose to keep fighting. Sam didn’t fight for me; he fell in love with Emily, and he didn’t think about it any more than that. He chose his imprint.”

“But-” I paused, unsure how to word my question. I didn’t know as much about imprinting as Leah clearly did, but I knew what I thought was enough. “I thought that was the point of imprinting? That you didn’t have a choice?”

“That’s the easy answer,” Leah agreed sourly, “but there are no easy answers, not truly. I read about older wolves, wolves who had families before they phased for the first time. It’s rare, but some of them were so determined to stay with their partner that they never imprinted. They found their own soulmates, and they fought their nature to be with them. And they won.”

“Isn’t it possible that they just never met their imprint?”

Leah pursed her lips, thinking.

“I thought the same thing for a while,” she acknowledged me, chewing on the inside of her cheek. “But I don’t anymore. It’s hard to explain…”

She fidgeted, struggling to come up with the words.

“One of the books I read was actually a journal,” she settled eventually, finding her train of thought. “It belonged to one of those older wolves, one that was married with children before he phased.

“He was in his late fifties, taking his kids to the carnival.” Leah paused, fighting to remember. “When he was there, he came across an older woman working the concessions. He couldn’t explain how he knew, but he felt in his heart that that woman was supposed to be his imprint.”

I fought back a gasp.

“But it wasn’t like a typical first meeting,” Leah pressed on determinedly. “He _knew_ what she was, but it was like looking at an old photograph, a memory. He didn’t feel the urge to leave his family, to run to her and make up for lost time. He described it like running into an ex; nostalgic, but no longer his path.

“I can feel it too, sort of.” Leah nearly blushed then, staring firmly at her hands. “My imprint, I mean. They’re out there, somewhere. I don’t know how I know, but I do. It’s like… it’s like there’s a thread tied around my heart. I can’t see the other end, but I know it’s attached to something. Jake, on the other hand, knows exactly where his string is tied. He cut it himself, and then attached the loose end to you.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, letting my body language do the talking for me.

“I know it’s hard,” Leah finished softly, pushing away from the railing. She let her hand ghost over my shoulder as she passed, offering me a rare smile. “I know you might not believe me about Jake, but it’s true. He’s chosen you. You belong together.”

Leah seemed to understand that I didn’t have anything to say. She hesitated for a moment longer, before I heard the sound of the front door clicking open and then shut, leaving me alone with my thoughts and Embry watching somewhere in the trees.

The sun was hovering just below the horizon, leaving the world around me a deep shade of blue. It was earlier than I’d ever woken willingly, even the birds were still sleeping in the trees. It was cold, it was damp, and it was lonely. The perfect time to be lost in the recesses of my own mind.

I’d thought about dating Jake, of course I had. We were perfect for each other in a lot of ways; being with him made me happier than I’d ever been, and while I didn’t know if he felt the same way, he certainly acted like it. I loved Jake, I always had, but he was a werewolf. Loving him, even if he loved me in return, just wasn’t enough. Not when he could be taken from me at any moment, whether he wanted to be or not.

I inadvertently glanced back at the door, where Leah had been.

Was she right?

My stomach flipped, making me nauseated. I hadn’t let myself think about Jake like that in a long time, not since I found out what imprinting was. He was my best friend; I couldn’t lose him. If we never dated, and he imprinted on someone, then I would have nothing _to_ lose. He wasn’t my boyfriend, so why would he leave me when he found his soulmate? I couldn’t love him, not like that, not if I wanted to keep him.

I almost laughed. What kind of back-ass-wards mess had I gotten myself into?

The sun was just starting to peek out over the trees, kissing the clouds with a pale-yellow glow. I was already going to be exhausted, but I should at least try to get a couple of hours in before everyone else woke up. Who knew what we’d be dealing with today?

I turned, heading in the direction of the door, when something stopped me in my tracks.

“Corey?”

I had no idea when he got there, or how, but Corey was suddenly there, standing casually on the top step of Angie’s porch. Apparently, spontaneously appearing was a bit of a bad habit of his.

“Bella,” Corey grunted, shoving his hands in his pockets. It was colder than the last time he’d made an appearance, so he was wearing his denim jacket again. It looked brighter, like he’d washed it. “Awful early to be out and about. Something happen?”

I frowned, sliding my foot back, as if getting ready to retreat.

Why was he here? He hadn’t shown up at all yesterday, not even when we were on the beach. He didn’t try to join us for supper, or movies, and now all of a sudden, he was here? At the crack of dawn?

The unease in my stomach crept up my throat, making me taste bile.

“Just couldn’t sleep,” I shrugged, assessing the position I was in. I’d have to walk past Corey to get to the front door, but mine and Leah’s window was right next to me. If I could bang on it loud enough, she’d come running. Maybe even the others too. He’d never threatened me before, but Jake taught me to always plan out my options before I needed them.

“Shame about that girl,” Corey sniffed, his gaze flickering between me and the woods. My heart seized, the blood in my veins turning to ice. “I was just out looking for her. The town is organizing a search party.”

It was a simple enough explanation, one that made sense given the circumstances, but something about it rang untrue. I didn’t know Corey- why would I believe him?

When was the last time any of us saw him, anyway?

It had to have been the beach two days ago. We’d all been together since, so if Corey had been around, I would’ve seen him. I didn’t, and in that time another girl just happens to go missing?

Was it a coincidence?

Maybe I was overreacting, but suddenly I really wanted to be inside.

“Should be more careful, you know,” Corey rumbled, strolling across the deck towards me. I stepped back, realising too late the mistake I’d made. My back collided with the rail, Corey planting himself firmly in front of me. My only escape route was completely cut off. “We don’t know how these people are going missing. Hanging around outside, alone, isn’t the brightest idea.”

“I can take care of myself, thanks,” I replied coldly, sounding much more confident than I felt. He was right, though. I shouldn’t have let Leah go without me. Embry was out here somewhere, patrolling, so I thought I was safe. But what if he couldn’t get here in time?

I held Corey’s stare as best I could, trying not to let my nerves show through.

“I have no doubt,” he admitted eventually, the tiniest flicker of a smile ghosting across his lips.

“Bella?”

Corey turned towards the voice, but he didn’t need to. In the next second, faster than I could process, Corey was being shoved unceremoniously away from me. Someone stepped between us, shielding me with his body and drawing himself to his full height.

Jacob.

“Can I help you with something?” Jake growled, his tone dangerous. This wasn’t the same anger he’d felt towards Paul- those arguments, no matter how intense, were still between family. Corey was certainly not family.

He assessed Jacob coolly, almost amused.

“No,” he grinned, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. I thought he was going to say something- either to defend himself or make the situation much, much worse, but he did neither. Corey met my gaze around Jake’s broad shoulders, lingering just a second too long. Jake made another quick step towards him, but Corey hadn’t been planning on sticking around. With a wave, he sauntered away from us.

I watched him go, heart pounding in my chest.

“Why didn’t you come inside?” Jake demanded suddenly, whirling on me. I worked my mouth silently, unprepared for his ire to turn on me. “Damnit, Bella! People are going missing, and you decide to just hang out by yourself? What’s the matter with you?”

“Leah was with me,” I argued, then realised I shouldn’t have said that. Jake would no doubt blame Leah now for leaving me alone. “And Embry is patrolling. I thought I was fine.”

“Tell me next time,” Jake huffed, pushing his hand roughly through his hair. “Jesus, you nearly gave me a heart attack. I knocked on your door and Leah said you were still on the deck and I just-”

“Why were you looking for me?” I interrupted, derailing his rant. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard him chastise me for being ‘unsafe’, and I was sure it wouldn’t be the last.

That seemed to throw him. He blinked, and, if I’m not mistaken, the slightest hint of a blush darkened his cheeks.

“I, uh,” he stammered, his eyes darting to the trees. I suspected he was looking for Embry. “I wanted to make sure you were okay. After what Paul said...”

He stopped, searching for the right words.

“I know I kind of stomped off there,” he trailed, definitely blushing now, “but Paul was just being an idiot. He didn’t mean- I mean, he didn’t- uh.”

He stopped again.

“The Pack loves having you around,” Jake promised, still not really looking at me. “And even if they didn’t, fuck ‘em. I like having you around, and that’s all that matters to me-”

I collided with him, cutting him off with the force of my sudden hug.

Jake staggered backwards, thrown off balance by the surprise. He caught himself- and me- quickly, his breath leaving his lungs in a whoosh.

“Paul’s an idiot,” I agreed, smiling against the fabric of his black t-shirt, “but I know that just means he likes me. I like him too.”

“Not as much as you like me, I hope,” Jake teased, relief cracking his voice. I tilted my head back to look at him, grinning mischievously.

“I don’t think I could like anyone as much as I like you,” I told him sincerely, watching the happiness flood his expression. His jaw twitched, but he didn’t say anything. His arms wrapped tightly around me, burying his face in the crook of my neck. I sighed in content, forgetting for a moment everything else outside of me and Jake.

“Let’s get you inside,” Jake whispered eventually, letting me go just long enough to take my hand, and leading me back into the beach house.


	7. Happy Death Day

“Well, it’s no birthday at the Luxor.”

“Come on Jess,” Angie snorted, “you’ve never had a birthday at the Luxor.”

“It was on my list.”

The waitress at the Little Heaven Bistro politely ignored our snickers, guiding us to the only table in the restaurant big enough to accommodate us all. It wasn’t actually one table- three smaller tables had been pushed together- but it worked out just fine for our purposes. The only downside was that it seemed to take up a full third of the tiny building.

We had a late start to the day, much as Seth predicted the night before. Most of us didn’t get any sleep until the sun was already high in the sky, which meant that just about everyone stayed in their rooms until after lunch. The only exception to that was Angela, who’d gotten up at 10 to call the restaurant and make reservations for supper.

“I’ll leave you with some menus,” the waitress smiled tightly, making the worried lines on her forehead stand out starkly against her pale skin. Her tense demeanor gave sharp contrast to the cozy little dining room, splashed with warm tones of red, brown, and greys. “I’ll come back for your drink orders in a few minutes.”

She barely waited long enough for us to say ‘thank you’ before she was off on a fast strut, slipping wordlessly into the kitchen.

Little Heaven reminded me of a local hangout for high school kids, even with the icy reception. If this place was in Forks anywhere near our school, we’d be here for lunch every single day. We were seated in the dining room, but they had a take out counter too for some of their quicker menu items, and a smattering of tables outside on a back patio. I’d never been here before, but it felt familiar.

Too bad the atmosphere was decidedly bleak after the various police announcements this morning.

“This was a good idea,” Leah smiled at Angela, who’d begun to fidget after the waitress’s strange behaviour. “I’m glad we got out of the house today.”

Murmurs of agreement rippled around the table, easing the mood.

The rest of town seemed to be as divided as we were about continuing their daily lives as if nothing was amiss. On our way to Little Heaven, we came across people of all kinds; some were arguing vehemently with loved ones, some were boldly proclaiming their lack of worry, and some were making supply runs that rivalled hurricane prep. With so little guidance from local law enforcement, no one knew which reaction was the most appropriate.

I didn’t know either, but Charlie was in tentative support of living normally, so I took comfort in that.

“I think I’m feeling pasta,” Angie announced, clearing her throat. I knew how stressed she must be about everything, but she was doing a great job of keeping her cool. None of this was in any way her fault, but if I knew Angie, she was feeling responsible since this vacation was her idea. “Anyone else know what they’re having?”

“I know what Jake’s having,” Embry laughed, slapping Jake’s shoulder with an open palm. “Ribs. He never orders anything else.”

“Not true,” Jake rebutted, affronted. “I get other things!”

“You’re right,” Embry rolled his eyes, “sometimes you’ll switch it up with a rib sandwich, or maybe some riblets, or-”

“Alright, alright,” Jake sighed, elbowing Embry in the arm. “Shut it, Call.”

“I might get a burger,” I mused, chewing on my lip. The Little Heaven Bistro had a lot more on its menu than I’d originally anticipated, so choosing was becoming a bit of an ordeal. It seemed I wasn’t the only one having difficulty, as debates erupted throughout our group.

The restaurant was far from empty, much to everyone’s relief. We clearly weren’t the only ones trying to make the best of a bad situation; it made our decision to eat out feel validated. It also meant that the Pack could talk a bit more freely, disguised by the numerous conversations happening around the room.

“Anything?” Jake whispered to Embry, speaking out of the corner of his mouth. I was on Jake’s other side, so I had to strain to hear him.

“Nothing,” Embry confirmed. Jake eased back into his chair.

After Embry’s patrol the night before, he’d come back with some potentially helpful information. The woods were popular, so there were a lot of scents clinging to every available surface. He couldn’t pinpoint one scent that stood out more than the others as being particularly odd, but the effort hadn’t been in vain.

There was a scent that he’d recognised from our journeys into town. Likely someone we’d run into directly or had frequent contact with if Embry was able to pick it out amongst hundreds of other smells. It might be nothing- a shop clerk, one of Angie’s neighbors, someone like that- but it was the only lead we had. The trees had been quiet near the beach house, no one sneaking in or around the property. With no other options, Embry was on the lookout for whoever belonged to that familiar scent.

I’m ashamed to admit that my mind immediately went to Corey. Aside from being insanely creepy, he really hadn’t done anything wrong. Even early this morning on the deck, he’d had a perfectly logical explanation for snooping around. I didn’t believe him, but that wasn’t necessarily his fault. I had no proof that he wasn’t exactly what he claimed to be: a concerned citizen looking for a missing girl.

My only comfort was that Jake seemed to be on my side of the matter.

Then again, he usually was.

I’d wasted a lot of time wrapped in my own thoughts, and already the waitress was back and taking orders. I rattled off my choices distractedly, trying not to draw too much attention to my divided concentration.

I wasn’t a huge talker in group gatherings, so it was a good enough excuse for me to use this time to think. I wasn’t a werewolf or a vampire, so I didn’t have any kind of physical advantage, but I wasn’t useless either. There was no evidence to suggest that Corey was untrustworthy aside from the simple fact that we didn’t know him. Maybe it was time I found some.

Eric was chatting animatedly with Angela across the table from me, looking relaxed for the first time in days. If his family was friends with Corey’s, then Eric should know _something_ at least. It was a feeble attempt at sleuthing, but it was something. I resolved to have a little chat with Eric once we were all back at the beach.

“Careful.”

I jumped, nearly knocking my cutlery to the floor, as Jake’s voice appeared near my ear. His mouth was so close that I could almost feel his lips moving, a scarlet blush already inching up my neck.

“Careful of what?” I hissed, irritated by my own embarrassment. I didn’t have to turn to know that a smirk had found its way onto Jake’s face.

“You’re thinking too hard,” he teased, his shoulder bumping gently against mine. “I can smell the smoke.”

“Shut _up,_ Jacob,” I complained, busying myself with my napkin. A silent chuckle vibrated through him, but he let the matter drop. Embry was saying something that caught his attention, leaving me to compose myself again. Something so casual wouldn’t normally have shaken me, but I was focussed on other things- I just prayed that Angela or Leah hadn’t seen that little exchange.

There was too much on my mind to worry about defending my non-relationship for the third time in as many days.

I immediately had to fight off another jump as I felt a warm pressure on my thigh. Glancing down as discreetly as possible, I saw Jake’s hand resting there, palm up, flexing his fingers towards my own hand.

Now I did blush, but it was a happier one. Jake didn’t know exactly what was on my mind, but he knew that distracting me wasn’t going to work right now. Instead, he offered an olive branch. I accepted, slipping my left hand into his right. He squeezed my fingers tightly, grounding me in the moment.

“Ooh, that looks delicious, Bella!” Angie exclaimed as our food began to arrive, slowly filling our huge table with plates, condiments, glasses, and extras. “Maybe I should’ve gotten the burger instead.”

“Are you kidding?” I laughed, trying to look as natural as possible while only using one hand to pick at my food. “Yours looks amazing!”

It was true; her alfredo looked like it was the real deal, no cream required. My mouth watered just looking at it.

“I’d like to propose a toast,” Mike struck his glass with his knife, earning a couple of disapproving glares from the restaurant staff. “To Jessica: happy birthday! I hope your next one is a lot better than this one.”

“Hear, hear,” Jess laughed, taking a deep swig of her Sprite. We all wished her a happy birthday in unison, sipping on our drinks before diving into our meals in earnest.

Jake’s thumb brushed the back of my hand, smoothing tender circles across my skin.

We ate in relative silence for a while, chatting aimlessly about nothing. It felt good to be enjoying ourselves again, after the absolute disaster our vacation had been thus far. I actually started to think we could get through a full meal without anything coming up, but alas, I was doomed to be wrong.

Just as I was contemplating how to ear a burger with one hand, my phone started to buzz. I wormed it out of my pocket as discreetly as possible, but with the lull in conversation, just about everyone noticed anyway. Charlie’s contact information sprang to life on my screen, making my stomach drop.

“Oh, I should go take this-!” I made to get up, but a firm hand on my elbow stopped me.

“You can’t answer it here?” Jake furrowed his brows, conveying a silent message to me through his eyes: _Stay._

I hesitated, angling my phone just enough for him to see Charlie’s name flashing across my screen.

“It’s kind of private,” I shrugged, panic constricting my throat as the call remained unanswered. If Charlie was calling me, it was important. “I’ll just be a minute.”

“Jake’s right,” Angela put her fork down deliberately, scooting her chair back to get up. “You shouldn’t go alone. I’ll come too.”

“No, that’s really okay,” I shook my head vehemently. I trusted Angela, but for the sake of everyone’s sanity, I wanted to hear what Charlie had to say before I shared it with anyone. “I won’t go far.”

Angela opened her mouth to argue, but another violent buzz cut her off. I’d missed the last call, and now Charlie was making another one immediately afterwards. That couldn’t be a good sign.

“It’s fine,” I promised, holding the phone tightly to my chest. I pointed to the massive window directly behind our table. “I’ll stand right there. You’ll be able to see me the whole time.”

Jake still didn’t look overly enthusiastic, but he nodded anyway. I’m sure it helped that with his elevated senses, he’d likely detect any danger before I needed to alert him. With a reassuring smile, I excused myself and strut purposefully towards the foyer.

The phone buzzed frantically in my hand, barely sounding out a final ring by the time I was far enough away from the table to answer.

“Dad?”

The wind outside muffled my voice, but he must’ve heard me. A second after the front door clicked shut behind me, Charlie spoke.

“Bella? Are you safe?”

No greeting, just panic. I guess I couldn’t blame him, but it didn’t make me feel any better.

“We’re safe, Dad,” I promised, peeking back over my shoulder into the restaurant. I caught Angie’s eye through the window, so I raised my hand in greeting. She visibly relaxed. “Everyone is sticking together.”

“Good,” Charlie grunted. I heard the sound of rustling papers from his end, followed by some muffled words from Billy. “I’m trying to get clearance to come pick you all up, but the road blocks are air tight. They’re not even letting emergency personnel through.”

“Isn’t this a bit of an overreaction?” I frowned, walking another three paces from the window. I was nearly at the corner now, but still in sight of the others. “Shutting down the whole city because a couple of people went missing?”

There was a heavy pause from Charlie’s end of the line.

“Dad?” I prodded, a sinking feeling in my chest. “It _is_ just a couple of people… isn’t it?”

Another pause, this time long enough that I thought the call dropped. Then-

“Can the others hear you?”

I shook my head, then realised he couldn’t see me.

“No, I stepped away from the table. I’m not far, though.”

Charlie cleared his throat, struggling with something.

“Keep this between us and the Pack,” Charlie insisted, dropping his volume so that I had to strain to hear. “As of this morning, official reports reflect that nearly eighty people have disappeared.”

“Eighty?” I choked, my eyes rounding. I swivelled my head frantically, making sure no one had followed me outside. “How is that possible?”

“That’s the problem,” Charlie rumbled back, “no one knows. People are just vanishing. All women, all below the age of 35. My buddy at the local station says the higher ups are painting it as a massive surge in human trafficking, but no one really believes it.”

All women. All young.

“What do we do?” I clutched my phone tighter, afraid that if I didn’t, I’d somehow lose the only lifeline we had to the outside world. “The others are already freaking out. If things get any worse…”

“Stick together,” Charlie’s voice changed suddenly, hardening into the tone he typically reserved for crowd control. “Tell Jacob what’s happening, keep the Pack in the loop. Don’t let anyone go off on their own. If they won’t listen, tell them it’s a direct order from me.”

Jess, Mike, Eric, and Angie all knew Charlie. They grew up with him, they respected him. Even through the panic, I suspected that they would obey him.

“Billy and I are doing our best,” Charlie continued, softening again. “As soon as we get the go-ahead, we’ll take the squad car and escort the lot of you home. Hang tight, Bells. And stay close to Jake.”

“I will,” I vowed, not that it was a difficult promise to make. I tried to tell myself that my sudden increased desire to be around Jacob was only because of the danger we might be in, and that it had nothing at all to do with my conversation with Leah the night before. I was failing. “Keep me updated?”

“Will do, kiddo,” Charlie sighed, maybe feeling some relief now that he’d talked to me. “Stay safe. Love you.”

“Love you too,” I smiled to myself, ending the call and slipping my cell back into my pocket.

The sudden and total silence was nearly deafening. I had only been alone on these streets once before, and it wasn’t exactly a comfortable experience. Now wasn’t much different; businesses were open, but most people were tucked away at home. I couldn’t say I blamed them.

I turned to look back at the restaurant.

Eighty people. Eight-zero. I almost couldn’t wrap my head around it.

I couldn’t face the others yet, not with that bit of news weighing on my mind. I was never the best at hiding my emotions, despite Edward’s insistence that he could never read me, so I knew that if I walked back in there right away, everyone would know something was up. No, I needed a moment to let it sink in.

I leaned back against the side of the building, in much the same way I had outside the video rental place, making sure that at least some of the others could still see me from this vantage point. Eerie déjà vu aside, the cool breeze did help soothe my flushed skin.

Were we in danger? Charlie certainly seemed to think so, and so did Jake. The Pack was on edge, even though none of them could sense any vampires around. Maybe it was the mystery of it all, the intense confusion that was making them jumpy. Whatever it was, it made me jumpy too.

I thought about texting Jake to come meet me outside, but I thought better of it. Taking a phone call wasn’t enough to rouse suspicion, but calling a meeting afterwards? That would definitely raise some red flags.

Instead, I took some deep breaths. It helped, focussing on a deep inhale and exhale. Not a lot, but enough. After only a few seconds, I felt like I could face everyone again.

I pushed myself off the wall, spun until I was heading in the direction of the door, and stopped.

A man with a familiar denim jacket was leaning against the stop sign opposite me.

“Corey?” I called reflexively. He didn’t turn, but I was sure it was him. He had the same frame, same hair colour, and, from what I could see at least, the same clothes I’d seen Corey wearing the last time we spoke.

What was he doing here? This would mark the fourth time I’d bumped into Corey relatively if not completely alone. Was he doing it on purpose? Once or twice could be chalked up to coincidence, but four times?

Was Corey trying to single me out?

I hesitated, debating what I should do. I could go back inside, alert the others, and risk him walking away before I got back to confront him. I could confront him now, alone, and risk falling right into a possible trap.

Eighty women.

Steeling myself, I took a determined step towards Corey. I was in screaming distance of Jake, so I wasn’t in that much danger. Maybe this was all a big misunderstanding and Corey had nothing to do with what was going on here, maybe he was just a little odd. Maybe I was out of my mind for taking the risk.

I wanted evidence. This could be my only chance to get it.

“Why are you following us around?” I demanded, cutting straight to the point. Corey’s interactions with me thus far had been blunt, maybe that’s what I needed to be too. “Corey?”

I was only a foot from him now, within grabbing distance. I reached out with my right hand, intending to tap him on the shoulder, but I didn’t get a chance.

He bolted.

“Hey!” I exclaimed in surprise, stumbling backwards as he took off down the alley between the restaurant and the bank next door. The harbour was behind this street, he couldn’t get very far.

I ran after him.

“Wait!” I screamed, sprinting after his retreating back. Corey veered left when he reached the end of the alley, behind the bank. I skidded around the corner after him, just catching sight of his denim jacket as he wove through the dumpsters and pallet stacks lining the dock.

What was I doing? My feet stuttered as I realised how stupid this was, chasing after a stranger when I had an entire pack of werewolves waiting for me at the restaurant, but I’d already come this far. Jake said Corey was human- I’d already dealt with vampires; I could handle humans.

Struggling to divert my attention between the street ahead of me and my phone, I dialled Jake’s number.

“Where are you?” he demanded immediately. I could just make out the sounds of people milling about around him; he would’ve seen me take off. He was probably already following.

“Corey,” I panted, trying to keep my voice even. “He was outside the restaurant and he ran. I’m chasing him along the docks.”

“Don’t get too far ahead, but try not to lose him.” Jake instructed, the sound of a door slamming echoing through the phone. Wind crackled through the line then; he was outside. “I’m right behind you.”

That was all I needed to hear.

I terminated the call, dropped my phone back into my pocket, and doubled down on my speed. The buildings reached an abrupt halt as the street parallel to the docks turned into an intersection. I barely avoided tripping on some stray fishing nets, catching myself on a large, foul-smelling barrel. There were more potential exits back here, but I could still make out Corey’s pounding footsteps over the lapping waves.

My mind kept circling back to one question as I strained to keep up, dodging obstacles with a grace that I really shouldn’t have been capable of. Why did Corey run? I recognised him, he _knew_ I recognised him, so what was the point of bolting? He’d done this before, tearing off the second he was even mildly confronted.

Was he trying to escape? If so, why let himself be seen in the first place? He didn’t have to approach me last night, and he could’ve stayed out of sight between the buildings today. These situations could’ve easily been avoided. So why-

I skidded to a halt, realising with dread that I could only hear one set of footsteps now. Corey, wherever he was, wasn’t running anymore.

I whirled, checking every direction, searching for a sign of movement. He couldn’t have gone far, not unless he jumped off the dock, but I hadn’t heard a splash. Hiding, then? But why-?

It hit me abruptly, one possible reason why Corey might have wanted me to see him, to follow him. One possible reason he might try to run somewhere with no perceivable exits. I scanned my surroundings again, realised I was standing a bit close to a massive dumpster, and took a step back.

Was this a trap?

Corey would have to know that I was here with the others. Would he risk attacking me, given the circumstances? We weren’t far from the restaurant, if I kicked up a fuss, someone would surely hear. Besides, Jake was on his way.

But would it matter?

A heavy sense of unease settled in my stomach. I’d made a mistake, I knew that now. I’d had a moment of bravery, but I’d been stupid. Even if I did scream, even if Jake heard me and was just around the corner, we still didn’t know how these people were disappearing. Even if Corey wasn’t involved, that didn’t change the fact that I was now completely alone in a back alley.

I wasn’t chasing a suspect anymore, I was simply exposed. I didn’t need to call Jake to know what I had to do next. I pivoted sharply, sprinting back in the direction I’d come from.

The sun was just starting to set over the water, casting long shadows across my legs as I ran. I didn’t know where Corey went, but I didn’t think he was following me. The only sound outside of my rapid breathing was the slow lapping of waves against the rocks below. I was safe, I had to be.

“Bella?”

 _Jake!_ I eased my pace, relief flooding me as I recognised Jake’s voice calling from somewhere in front of me. He was close, much closer than Corey would be if he was indeed following. I spotted the corner of the bank just ahead, tall and proud and familiar. My heart was beating wildly in my chest, nervous sweat sticking to my forehead, but I was almost back.

_Click._

The sound was startlingly loud in the otherwise quiet alley, like it was coming from right beside my ear. I yelped, breaking into another sprint, throwing myself around the corner. It was the same sound, the one I heard outside Fred’s, but this time I recognised it. It was the snap of an iPhone camera.

Someone was taking pictures of me.

I didn’t stick around to find out who or why; my muscles burned, my chest ached, but I had to keep going, I had to-

_Bang!_

I slammed face first into someone standing just out of my line of sight, tumbling gracelessly into a pair of strong, familiar arms.

“Bella!”

I looked up, shrinking into myself as my eyes locked with Jake’s. Fury and panic swam in his irises.

“What happened?” He demanded, his breath coming fast and sharp. “Where’s Corey?”

I inhaled as deeply as I could, the salty air burning my throat as I tried to talk as quickly as possible. I could hear the Pack somewhere behind Jake, chatting jovially, keeping the others calm.

“I lost him near the marina,” I spat out eventually, nodding behind me. “He stopped running, but I felt like I was walking into a trap. I came back.”

“That was smart,” Jake assured me, pulling me roughly into a hug. I sank into his warmth for just a moment, letting him reassure me that I was safe again. “Did you hear anything? See anything?”

“It was like he just vanished,” I admitted, my nose scrunching. “One minute he was there, and the next I was alone. Or it seemed like I was alone.”

“I’ll get Paul and Quil to double back,” Jake muttered, mostly to himself. “They should be able to pick up his scent and track him. We’ve been letting that guy get away with too much shit.”

I kept my mouth shut, letting Jake work through his annoyance.

“I think it’s about time that we-”

I never got to hear the end of that sentence. Jake froze, his pupils dilating.

“What is it?” I tried to turn, but Jake’s grip on my body suddenly tightened. Wordlessly, he spun, guiding me forcefully back towards the restaurant.

“We need to get inside,” Jake murmured, so low that I had to strain to hear him. “Now.”

“Why?” I whispered, my hair standing on end. Jake’s muscles were tensed, the veins on his forearms standing out sharply against his skin. “Jake, what is it?”

“I smell a leech.”


	8. Interview with the Vampire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thank you so much for all the love and feedback, I really appreciate it!  
> I just wanted to make a quick announcement that there will be no chapter next week. Next week was supposed to be my wedding, but due to the pandemic we had to postpone. Instead, we’ll just be taking some time to ourselves for a few days. Thank you for understanding!  
> I’ll be back on October 6th with a brand-new chapter for you, I promise! (Ps: it’s a big one)

“So, is anyone going to explain why we had to book it out of there like we robbed the place?”

Mike was complaining loud enough to slow even Jake’s determined step, but not quite enough to stop us. He trailed just behind Embry and Leah, conveniently clustered with Eric, Jess, and Angela between us and the rest of the Pack. I suspected that was an intentional move by Jacob.

“I’ll explain back at the house,” I promised over my shoulder, doing my best to keep up with Jake’s swift pace. Not that he would let me fall behind- his arm around my waist kept me as close to him as physically possible- but if I stumbled, he was likely to sweep me into his arms and sprint to the truck. I didn’t think we needed to cause any more confusion than we already had.

The town had drifted into slumber much faster than the last time we visited, with barren streets and dark ‘open’ signs. We rarely had to slow our journey aside from looking both ways before crossing the road. I was silently thankful for that.

Our retreat from the restaurant had been rushed and panicked; Jake was still reeling from the stench of vampire clinging to the docks, so his instructions were brusque and harsh. He told rather than asked the others to leave, and stormed off without further discussion, dragging me along with him. I didn’t hear what the Pack said to get everyone to follow, but I had a feeling Embry took the lead on that particular task.

Mike was the first to summon enough bravery to ask a question, and my lackluster response seemed to have temporarily dissuaded any further inquiry. It didn’t last. Thankfully, we’d almost made our way back to the cars before anyone spoke again. This time, it was Angie.

“Is everything okay?” She fell into step next to me, her eyes darting worriedly to my phone. She’d made the connection between our abrupt departure and the phone call I’d gotten in the bistro, but she had no way of guessing the details. I planned to keep it that way.

“Everything is fine,” I assured her, trying for a smile. I failed miserably; it felt fake even to me.

“It doesn’t feel fine!” Jess snapped, appearing out of nowhere. Mike grabbed for her arm, but she slipped easily away from him. She skidded to a stop next to my truck, blocking the passenger side door that Jake was trying to usher me into. I winced. “You’ve been acting strange all day, Swan. Now I’ve had about enough of all this mystery and secrets. Tell us what’s going on.”

Jacob bristled beside me, but Jess was right. They deserved answers- whatever answers we could give them, anyway. I wasn’t sure how much information was the right amount, but I had to start somewhere.

“The phone call was from Charlie,” I admitted, sharing a look with Jake, seeking guidance. He didn’t stop me, his attention focussed on our surroundings, making sure we weren’t being followed. He was itching to get out of here, but we had to stay together. Some honesty was required for that. “He’s worried about us being out of the house.”

“I thought you said he was on board with the ‘living normally’ thing?” Eric frowned, sounding much calmer than Jess. “We wouldn’t have gone out if-”

“He was,” I interrupted quickly. “But he’s been trying to get clearance to come escort us home, and the more road blocks he hits, the more suspicious he’s getting. He called to tell me that not even emergency vehicles are being permitted through, so he thinks we should hunker down at home until he figures this out.”

“Why couldn’t you just say that at the restaurant?” Angie took my hand tentatively in hers; supportive, but questioning. “Why did we have to run off like that?”

_Because there was a vampire._

“I’m sorry,” I said sincerely, wishing I could offer a better excuse. It was a good question, one that I just couldn’t answer honestly. “Dad was worried about starting a panic, so he told me to keep it from the locals. I didn’t think I could say anything back there without anyone eavesdropping.”

It was a weak explanation, even I knew that. Angie’s face hardened before my eyes, the knowledge that I was lying to her erecting a stone wall of betrayal between us. My heart stuttered. As disappointed as she was, Angie hadn’t turned away from me. There was time to fix this, but I had to act fast.

I couldn’t lose my friends again. Vampires ruined my relationships once; I wasn’t about to let it happen again. Jake was going to hate me for this.

“And there’s… one other thing.”

Jacob’s gaze whipped to me in an instant, vehemently warning me to keep whatever I was about to say to myself. I couldn’t listen to him, not this time. His main concern was keeping everyone safe, but that wasn’t possible if we left the others in the dark. I needed to do better. I needed to give them more.

“I think that Corey guy has been following us.”

“Corey?” Angie scrunched her nose, clearly not expecting that line of thinking. “You’ve seen him around?”

I nodded, ignoring the burning glare Jake was giving me.

“I’ve been bumping into him everywhere,” I continued, feeling the eyes of the entire Pack on me now. “I caught him standing outside the restaurant while I was on the phone with Charlie. It kinda seemed like he was listening.”

Realisation began to dawn in Angie’s face, her mouth working silently as she pieced together what I was implying. For the sake of everyone else, I pressed on.

“ _That’s_ why I ran.” I risked a peek at Jake, but his face gave me nothing. “I tried to confront him, and he took off. He’s been acting really strange, and I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt but with everything going on… I don’t know, it weirded me out. I just wanted to get out of there.”

I could’ve left it at that. I was pretty confident that my half-truths would be enough, but ‘pretty confident’ wasn’t ‘totally confident’. I had to jam that final nail in the coffin, the one that would get everyone on my side.

“It felt like…” I took a breath, praying that I sounded convincing. “It felt like I was being stalked.”

A heavy silence fell over us.

That was a cheap card to play. Everyone knew that Edward had all but put a GPS tracker in my car when we were together; stalking was a sensitive subject for me. If I felt like Corey was following me and I needed to get the hell out of there, no one would argue.

That’s all I needed: for people not to argue.

Mike looked like he wanted to say something, but he bit his tongue. He hated Edward almost as much as I did, and he didn’t usually pass on an opportunity to dump on my ex. Today though, things were different. The quiet dragged on, everyone wondering what had happened between myself and Corey and no one brave enough to go near the topic of Edward to ask. It was a strategic choice by me, and it was working.

“If we’re going to hole up in the beach house,” Angela began, drawing attention away from me at last. “We’ll need to grab a couple of things. You guys head back; we’ll stop in the grocery store on our way.”

My shoulders instantly sagged in relief, and I smiled gratefully at Angie. She returned it, discreetly squeezing my palm out of view of everyone. There was a worried crease in her brow, and I suspected she still didn’t think I was telling the whole truth, but she was trusting me. I nearly cried.

“Keys?” Jake asked, raising his eyebrow at her.

“Under the flower pot on the front step.”

With a decisive nod, Jake resumed ushering me into my truck. Everything happened very quickly after that; the Pack piled into Sam’s van, Angie, Eric, Mike, and Jess hopped into Jess’s car, and Jake took the driver’s seat of my truck. We were out of the parking lot in under a minute.

“Is it following us?” I asked as soon as we were moving, gripping the seatbelt until my knuckles turned white. As nervous as I was when I thought this was a human problem, the involvement of a vampire made my skin crawl. I wasn’t ready to go through this again.

Jake paused, inhaling deeply, before he answered.

“No, I don’t think so.” His voice was tight, controlled, but I could feel the lingering tensions coming off of him in waves. “The smell is getting weaker.”

“Do you recognise it?”

Jake shook his head. I didn’t know if that made me feel better or worse.

We were speeding now, Sam’s van trailing close behind us. I didn’t want to think about the conversation happening in that vehicle; involved in the disappearances or not, the Pack wouldn’t be content leaving a vampire hanging around.

“What did Charlie have to say?”

My heart seized in my chest. I’d almost forgotten the news in all the chaos, but Jacob had to know. I told him everything I left out of my explanation to the others, making sure not to skim over any detail, no matter how small. Jake listened in stony silence, his teeth clenched.

“It’s too big of a coincidence,” he sighed eventually, his controlled mask slipping for an instant. I caught a glimpse of how tired he was, how stressed. I bit my lip, laying my hand gently on his knee. He managed a soft smile. “There’s no way the leech isn’t involved. Eighty women is too much for a human to manage in a couple of days.”

“It could be multiple humans,” I suggested, thinking back to Charlie’s mention of human trafficking. “If there’s a group of them working together, it’s doable.”

“Possible, but I don’t think so.” Jake took the turn into the beach house road sharply, making my hand slip from his knee to his thigh. I didn’t bother to move it back. “Too many opportunities for mistakes. The police would likely have a lead by now if this was a human attack.”

I thought back to Paul’s story from the other night. Jake was right; it didn’t fit in with a human perpetrator.

“Corey knows something,” I insisted, feeling the truth of that statement in my gut. “I don’t know what, but he’s involved somehow. We need to talk to him.”

“That’s going to be our first step,” Jake agreed. “That, and tracking this vamp.”

He gave me an exasperated look, and I knew he still wasn’t happy that I’d spilled the beans about Corey, but we had bigger things to worry about. I squeezed his thigh in what I hoped was a comforting gesture, but I think my shaking took away from the moment.

We drove on in silence, my attention fixated on the thickening trees. It struck me again how dangerous the woods could be; it was impossible to see more than a few feet in any direction. Anything could be hiding in there, just out of sight. Vampires, humans, werewolves, anything at all. When I eventually decided to settle down and buy a house, I was moving as far away from trees as I could.

The road turned to gravel, which eventually gave way to sand. Before I knew it, we were back at the house.

The Pack pulled up next to us in a matter of seconds, practically flinging themselves out of the van, a cacophony of irritated voices following them. I made to open my door, to see what the commotion was about, but Jake stopped me with his hand on mine. He caught Embry’s attention with a quick tap on the window, signalling to send everyone else inside without us. I watched him curiously, but he didn’t say a word until the front door was safely shut.

When we were alone, Jake let the tension bleed from his body. His shoulders slumped, his breath leaving his lungs in a great whoosh. His carefully assembled front of confidence crumbled before my very eyes in less than a second, leaving a jumbled mess of exhaustion, pain, and fear.

I swallowed hard. My hand was still on his thigh, twisting now to lace my fingers with his. When he spoke, it was so quiet that I almost missed it entirely.

“I’m sorry, Bella.”

I blinked. “For what?”

Jake heaved a great sigh, shifting in his seat to face me properly. He returned my steady grip, tracing circles across the back of my hand with his thumb.

“I promised that I’d keep you safe this week,” he murmured, his jaw twitching. “I told you not to worry, that I’d handle it. And I’m failing, miserably.”

“You are not,” I insisted hotly, using my free hand to rip my seatbelt off. I shuffled angrily across the middle seat, bringing myself within a foot of Jake. “Jacob, we’d be falling apart without you. _I’d_ be falling apart. Don’t say that about yourself.”

“I let a leech get within sniffing distance of you,” Jake cursed, fire igniting in his eyes for a flash of a second before dying out again. “If I’d been just a minute later finding you-”

“But you weren’t,” I told him firmly, dropping his hand to place my palms on either side of his face. I held his gaze, trying to communicate how much I needed him here with me. “You found me. You _saved_ me. There’s no one on this earth that I trust more than you. We can do this, okay? We’ll figure this out together.”

A ghost of a smile passed over his lips, bringing life back into him.

“I thought I was supposed to be the one reassuring you,” he teased, his arms gently wrapping around my waist. I smiled, absently fixing a lock of hair near his ear that had blown out of place.

“Well, you’re doing a shit job of it.”

He laughed then, a real laugh, and I felt the warmth of it surge through me. Jake just wasn’t Jake when he didn’t have a stupid grin on his face.

“We’re going to handle this,” he vowed, resting his forehead against mine. I nodded gently, feeling the movement of his skin against my hair. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Bells.”

“I know,” I whispered, suppressing a shiver as I felt him swallow beneath my fingertips. My hands drifted absently down to his chest, drawing my attention to the feeling of his heartbeat. “Just… don’t let anything happen to you either, okay? I don’t know what I’d do if…”

He made a low sound in the back of his throat that could’ve been confirmation, but I barely noticed. Jake was so close to me, his breath ghosting over my suddenly flushed skin, his hands large and warm against my back. When did I close my eyes?

“Bella?”

My name left his lips as a question, soft and fleeting, like the touch of an autumn breeze on your cheek. This time I didn’t bother to hide my shivers from him, leaning into the spark of electricity bouncing between us.

“Jake, I-”

A sharp buzz sent me jolting backwards, startling me out of whatever spell I’d fallen into.

“Shit.” My phone rattled violently on the dash, the screen announcing a text from Angela. She wanted to know if we needed anything from the store. I didn’t answer right away, locked in Jake’s paralyzing stare.

His arms kept me from escaping too far from him, but I could tell from his dazed expression that the moment was gone. I wasn’t sure if the feeling rushing through me was closer to relief or searing disappointment.

Maybe it was a bit of both.

“We should go inside,” Jake muttered eventually, searching my face for something. I didn’t know if he found it, but something happened. I could almost see Jake withdrawing from me, closing off in a way that he never had before. I didn’t know what was going on, but whatever it was, I knew I had only a second to stop it. “The Pack will come looking.”

He retracted his arms, lengthening the distance between us. I needed to say something, I needed to-

My phone buzzed again, and I turned to look. I shouldn’t have turned to look.

“Answer that,” Jake said, his voice like stone. I flipped my attention back to him, pleading for something, I just didn’t know what. His expression shuttered, and I understood that whatever happened now, I was powerless to stop it. “Angie will worry.”

I nodded mutely, slowly sliding back onto my side of the truck. The cold assaulted me immediately, leaving me aching to return to him. Jake opened his mouth to say something, and then thought better of it. With a half-hearted attempt at a smile, he opened his door and unfolded himself from the truck.

The image of the unoccupied driver’s seat struck me with a twinge of regret that I was too shaken to explore. I wasn’t sure what had almost just happened between us, but I _was_ sure that it wouldn’t have been anything simple. This was better. This was the correct outcome.

Then why did it feel like I’d lost some part of him?

With an unexpected emptiness growing painfully in my chest, I sullenly followed him into the house.

In the brief minutes that Jake and I were alone outside, I’d forgotten the boiling chaos that clung to the Pack as they filed into the house. Jake opened the door with a creak that should’ve been deafening, if not for the eruption of angered voices that met us like a wall of humidity.

“How about now, Paul?” Embry snapped, jabbing his finger into Paul’s chest. They were in the porch, having completely missed our entrance, while everyone else was scattered generously throughout the living room and kitchen. “Think we’re all overreacting now?”

Paul growled in response, taking an abrupt step closer to Embry. Embry never faltered, impressively holding his ground.

“What the hell is going on?” Jake tried absently, but his attempt at intervention was ignored. To his credit, he hadn’t tried very hard. I think he was still in shock.

“We’re fucking werewolves, Em.” Paul rumbled on, walking chest first into Quil’s hand, which shot between them. He pushed back against Paul, trying to keep him a safe distance from Embry. “We’re _built_ to deal with vampires! If you’re all going to pussy out at the first sign of trouble, then maybe you shouldn’t be in the Pack at all!”

“There are people here!” Embry shot back. “People that don’t understand the danger we’re in! Are you such a goddamn prick that you can’t summon an ounce of sympathy for them?”

“Hey,” Jake barked, leaving me at the door to insert himself between Embry and Paul. Quil lingered to help, keeping his forearm flat on Paul’s chest. “Let’s all just cool off for a second, alright? We have bigger things to worry about; we can all talk about how much Paul sucks later.”

Embry huffed, staring Paul down for just a second longer than I was comfortable with. Eventually though, Jake’s hulking presence dissuaded him and Embry took an accommodating step backwards.

“Alright,” Jake sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. I wasn’t sure if it was the stress he was under, or the leftover tension from our conversation, but he looked tired. Tired and fed up. “Everyone, listen up. Bella has some updates from Charlie.”

Startled at being addressed so suddenly, I stumbled a bit over my words before I was able to relay everything I’d learned during my brief phone call. The Pack listened intently, digesting the information with careful consideration before commenting.

When I was done, the room felt heavy with dread.

“Eighty women?” Leah’s mouth was set in a potent frown, drastically deepening the lines in her forehead. “That’s insane even for a leech.”

“Bigger than any attack I’ve ever heard of,” Quil agreed, crossing his arms over his chest. “What is it doing with them? No one’s found any bodies, have they?”

“Dad didn’t say,” I admitted, shrugging. “I would lean towards no. Once murder is involved, it’s a lot harder to keep that a secret.”

“So, what do we do?” Seth looked anxiously between everyone, waiting for an answer that we didn’t have. Jake was the first to speak, using his deep, steady voice to hopefully instill confidence in us.

“First thing’s first,” Jake rumbled, “we need a plan. Did everyone get the leech’s scent?” Murmurs of confirmation. “Good, that’s a start at least. Makes tracking easier.”

“We can’t all track it,” Embry argued, “the humans will be left vulnerable.”

“And what about Corey?” I hadn’t meant to interject, but I didn’t want him to be overlooked. “We still don’t know how he’s involved.”

“What makes you so sure he’s involved?” Paul scoffed. “He’s a human. We can’t waste resources on him just because he creeps you out.”

“No, Bella’s right,” Jake quipped, his tone firm. “Corey’s scent outside the restaurant was almost mixed in with the vampire’s. Whether he’s aware of it or not, he’s involved. We need to find out more about him.”

“I can talk to Eric,” I volunteered, voicing my thoughts from earlier. “See if he knows anything.”

“Some of us to track the leech, some of us to tail Corey, and some of us to stay here and protect the house. This is getting complicated fast,” Jake groaned, rubbing his palm over his eyes. “Before, we were just worried about keeping everyone safe.”

“Isn’t that still what we’re worried about?” Seth asked uncertainly. “We’re just waiting until Charlie can come get us and then we’re all going home, right?”

“We can’t just leave these people to the mercy of a vampire,” Leah shushed him. “It’s our job to deal with this threat. We can’t go home until we kill it.”

“Maybe we should call Sam,” Embry suggested carefully, making tentative eye contact with Jake. He shrunk a bit when Jake turned away, but he continued anyway. Maybe he knew Jake’s sour mood wasn’t necessarily directed at him. “He’d want to know what’s going on. Maybe he can come help.”

“Sam and Emily aren’t home,” Leah said frostily. “They went camping in Red Brook. No service.”

“Then I guess we’re on our own,” Jake finally returned Embry’s stare, less hostile than before. I felt a pang of unsubstantiated guilt; the Pack was working so hard to deal with this situation, and the best I could do was gather information on a guy that might not even know anything. Being a human in a werewolf world had its downsides. If only I could-

I froze, my spine jerking straight, as I realised that there _was_ something I could do. But no one was going to like it.

“Well,” I hesitated, knowing full well that my suggestion was not going to be met with enthusiasm. My tongue felt thick in my mouth, moving slowly and clumsily over my words. “There is _someone_ who might be able to help.”

I glanced at Jake, anxiety weighing heavily on my shoulders. A split second of confusion flashed across his face before it hardened into a steely mask of understanding.

“Not a chance,” Jake dismissed immediately, his temper already flaring. “I’m not letting that bloodsucker anywhere near you after what he-”

“Not Edward,” I interrupted quickly, realising he’d jumped to the wrong vampire. “Emmett. We still talk sometimes; I could text him and see if he knows anything. I’m sure he’d help us.”

And I was. Some of the Cullens had fallen out of touch with me even after they returned to Forks, namely Rosalie and Jasper, but I still had a friendly relationship with the others. Emmett and I in particular developed a solid rapport over text, usually regaling each other with the latest stupid joke we’d found on a cereal box or gum wrapper. Emmett still liked me, and he’d told me on multiple occasions that he missed having me around. If I asked him for help, I had no doubt he’d do what he could for us.

Jake, surprisingly, seemed to mull it over, observing me closely as he thought.

“I don’t like it,” he admitted eventually, heaving his shoulders in defeat. “But I trust you, Bells. If you think it’s a good idea, I’m on board.”

That, I wasn’t expecting.

A shocked smile sprang to my face before I could stop it- both from relief at Jake accepting my idea, and from the prospect of seeing Emmett again. I realised too late that Jacob only read the latter, a pained expression passing over him just long enough for me to see it. I schooled my features again, but the damage was done.

Uncharted territory between me and Jake was unheard of. I felt like someone dropped me in an Olympic swimming pool and yanked out all the ladders; if I didn’t find a way out soon, I was going to drown. Things with Jake were never awkward, never weird. He was the physical embodiment of comfort, and I desperately wanted to get back what I threatened to lose. We were going to have to talk about what happened, but now wasn’t the time. For now, Jake was on my side.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one I needed to convince.

“Over my dead body,” Paul snorted, snarling in disgust. “We’re trying to _catch_ a leech, not buddy up with one.”

“The Cullens have always been respectful of the treaty,” Jake rebutted, jumping to my defense much faster than I expected. That gave me hope. “Carlisle has been true to his word and kept as much peace between us as possible. I don’t think we have any reason to dismiss the idea without at least some discussion.”

“They’re _vampires_ , Jacob,” Quil complained, tentatively siding with Paul. “Living next to them is one thing, but working with them? Like Paul said, we’re designed to hunt them down, why do we even need their help?”

“The number of people who’ve gone missing is… scary, even for a vampire,” I explained, trying not to fiddle with my clothes. “If one’s gone rogue, we need to deal with it as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the vampire council will take notice and this whole town will be swarming with them.”

I didn’t know much about the Volturi, only what Alice told me after Edward pleaded with me to take him back last year. He mentioned something in passing, something about a ‘vampire suicide’, but I didn’t want to hear him out at the time. Instead, I asked Alice, and learned about the highest execution of vampire law.

“The Volturi’s only goal is keeping order and secrecy,” I pressed on, leaning into the questioning looks I was getting. If nothing else, it was keeping me distracted from the growing hole in my heart. “If they find out a vampire is on a mass killing spree, they’ll be here faster than we can blink. Our only saving grace right now is that the killings aren’t public, so we can assume that the Volturi doesn’t know about them yet. If we want to prevent a bunch of old ass vampires from invading Washington, we need to use every available resource we have. That includes the Cullens.”

“How do we know the Cullens won’t call in this council thing?” Seth piped up, speaking for the first time since Leah snapped at him. “They’re vampires. Wouldn’t it be like… reporting to their government or something?”

“I can’t speak for all the Cullens,” I hedged, “but I know at least some of them don’t like or trust the Volturi. They’d be just as interested in fixing the problem before it reached Italy as we are.”

A hush fell over everyone, heavy with uncertainty. I waited, teeth nearly piercing my own tongue.

“I like Emmett,” Leah announced suddenly, flooring us all. “He was the big, black-haired one, right? He’s funny.”

I gaped, wondering if my ears were working right.

“I say call him.” Leah shrugged, aware that we were all gawking at her but looking like she couldn’t care less. She probably couldn’t. “We’re already dealing with one leech. What’s a few more?”

“Let’s vote,” Jake rushed in, taking advantage of the collective confusion Leah had created. “All in favor of letting Bella ask the Cullens for help, say aye.”

A smattering of ‘aye’s rippled through the Pack, skipping only Paul and Quil. Majority rules.

“Then it’s decided,” Jake clapped his hands conclusively, but his expression was still riddled with questions. I tried my best to just take the win, but even I wasn’t expecting the conversation to go quite like that. “Bells? Call him.”

Despite Jake’s suggestion, I didn’t actually call Emmett. I didn’t know where he was or who he was with, and I couldn’t ignore the superhuman hearing of vampires. If he picked up the phone around Rosalie or, worse, Edward, there was almost no chance they wouldn’t hear me.

I was already taking a risk with Edward’s telepathy; I didn’t need to worsen my odds.

So, I texted him instead. Emmett was decent at texting, although he reminded me a bit of a middle schooler with his borderline annoying use of emojis. Every sentence was punctuated with a minimum of two images, sometimes completely unrelated to the topic. I’d been meaning to ask him if he actually understood the point of emojis, but I hadn’t gotten around to it.

_Hey Emmett, this is a bit of a weird question. I’m on vacation with the Pack and some of my school friends, and I think we have a vampire problem._

Before I could put my phone away, he responded.

 _What????????_ Two gasping faces. _What’s happening?_

I explained as best as I could, leaving out as few details as possible. When I was done, I had several walls of text. Emmett must’ve been reading as I was sending them, because he responded again right away.

 _Haven’t heard anything._ Thinking face, shrugging man. _I’ll look into it and get back to you. Stay safe!_

“He’s on it,” I announced, feeling only slightly better. Jake dipped his chin, accepting but not overly happy. That was better than I could’ve hoped for. “What do we do now?”

“I think we should work on making everyone feel safe,” Embry mused, glancing around the room. “After what happened at the restaurant, they’re going to be shaken up.”

No one tried to argue with that.

“Charlie said we need to stick together, right?” Embry crossed his arms over his chest, continuing. “Maybe it would be best if we all slept in the living room. Move the mattresses out here, put pillows and blankets on the couches. Then we’d have enough places to sleep that only two people would have to share, and it’ll be easier to keep tabs on the humans.”

Embry punctuated his suggestion with a glance in my direction, and I got the sudden and intense feeling that he knew something happened between Jake and I. I couldn’t explain it, but something about the way he looked at me made me squirm. What that had to do with the sleeping arrangements, I wasn’t entirely sure.

Either way, it made me nervous. Being on the rocks with Jake was one thing, but having anyone else get involved was something I absolutely did not want to deal with.

“That’s a great idea, Em,” Jake slapped him squarely on the back. “I knew that brain worked sometimes.”

“I have my moments.”

“Bella and I can share,” Leah suggested, almost too casually. I raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m sure Jake will feel better knowing his princess is covered at all times.”

Jake rolled his eyes, but he didn’t exactly deny it either. I glared pointedly at Leah, but it didn’t have the effect I was expecting. She raised her eyebrows at me, communicating some secret that I didn’t understand, but that she’d explain later. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but I knew we couldn’t talk privately with the entire Pack present.

Leah glanced from me to Embry, and then I _knew_ this wouldn’t be good. Whatever was going on, I wanted no part of it.

With the weight of the decisions no longer in the air, the rest of the Pack seemed to relax. I knew they weren’t completely on board with trusting any of the Cullens, but I couldn’t blame them. They were quite literally hardwired to hate and distrust vampires, no matter the circumstance.

“Angie and the others should be back by now, shouldn’t they?” Seth voiced suddenly, peering out the front window. I counted backwards in my head to around the time they’d left, and realised Seth was right. Even if the grocery store was packed, they shouldn’t have been that far behind us.

“Probably just taking longer because of the road blocks,” Embry shrugged reassuringly, dropping onto the couch nearest the kitchen. “Traffic’s gotta be brutal with all the police presence.”

Except that we’d gotten here without any trouble at all.

“It’s nothing to worry about, I’m sure,” Jake added, seeing me wringing my hands. I smiled gratefully at him, but I looked away quickly. I didn’t want him to see how nervous I really was. “Besides, Angie’s been texting you. I’m sure they’re fine, but if they’re still not back in half an hour, we can call them.”

Having a plan in place did make me feel better, but my heart still leapt into my throat when I thought I heard the crunching of gravel outside.

“Did that sound like a car to you?” I asked suddenly, fast-walking to the front door. I flung it open quickly, nearly jumping out of my skin when I saw someone waiting on the other side. I took in the jean jacket, the band tee, and the brooding frown with almost surreal disbelief. This couldn’t be happening again-

But it was. Corey was standing on the other side of our door.

“Corey?” I exclaimed, taking an involuntary step backwards. He looked surprised, like he wasn’t expecting anyone to open the door. For a split second, he didn’t do anything, like a deer trapped in headlights. And then he grabbed me.

“Hey!” I yelped, my hands shooting immediately to grasp his. Corey had me by the shirtfront, his fists wrapped in the loose fabric of my t-shirt, pulling me forward. I couldn’t tell if he was tugging me against him or if he was leading me outside, but I didn’t wait to find out. I clawed at his grip, digging my heels into the floorboards.

“ _Bella_!”

I heard Jake’s furious roar only a split second before his arms appeared around my waist, hauling me sharply backwards out of Corey’s grasp. He didn’t let go, ripping my t-shirt clean down the middle, but I didn’t care. Jake had me now; I could worry about everyone seeing my bra later.

As it turns out, I didn’t have to. Jake spun me in his arms, pressing the front of my body firmly into his, shielding my exposed chest. I huddled into him gratefully, squeezing my arms protectively around my torso.

Embry was suddenly blocking my vision, aiming a quick jab at Corey’s head. Corey ducked, scrambling off the deck and onto the gravel. Embry started after him.

“Wait-!” I tired to yell, but I was abruptly cut off. The commotion had moved outside, but the noise was as sharp and clear as it had been in the doorway. “Embry, _wait_!”

“What do you mean ‘wait’?” Embry repeated incredulously. “Bella, that guy tried to-”

“Why are you following us?” I ignored Embry’s complaints, craning my neck to see around him. I could just make out Corey’s retreating figure, skidding precariously across the rocks. “ _What do you want with me_?”

Jake tightened his grip on me, as if to stop me from running after Corey myself, but I wasn’t going to. My question gave Corey pause, and I saw him slow his step.

“Were you taking pictures of me?”

Jake gave me a bewildered look, but he kept his mouth firmly shut. Now Corey was at a complete stop, facing away from us. Jake nodded at Embry, signalling for him to start closing the distance between them.

“What the hell do you want from us?”

I wanted to ask him why he smelled like a vampire yesterday, but that wasn’t smart. He might not know he was spending at least some time with a member of the undead, and bringing it up unknowingly would only complicate things.

“What were you doing in the alley today?” I tried again. He wasn’t answering my questions, but he wasn’t moving either. Embry was only a few feet from him now, almost close enough to grab the back of his jacket. I swallowed hard.

“Why-”

My question was punctuated with a loud snap as Embry’s heel crunched on a brittle twig. Corey jolted out of his distraction, sprinting around the side of the house, and crashing wildly through the underbrush. Embry lunged after him, but he was just a breath too late. Corey was already weaving through the trees.

“Shit!” Jake cursed. Every muscle tensed, coiled and ready to spring, but he stopped himself. He looked down worriedly at me, reminding himself that I was still without a proper shirt.

“What are you doing?” Paul demanded, shoving his way through the crowd of us collected at the door. “Go after him!”

Jake whipped his head around to bark at Paul, but Leah cut him off. She rounded on me, producing one of my tank tops that she’d grabbed from our room.

“Here, I’ve got it.” I couldn’t tell if she was assuring me or Jake, but in less than a second, my ruined t-shirt was on the floor and I was fully clothed again. I let the air leave my lungs in one breath. “Fucking prick. What is his problem?”

“He’s _getting away_ ,” Paul hissed, “that’s _our_ problem! We need to go after him, now!”

“You’re right,” Jake agreed, relaxing now that I was taken care of. One of his arms remained around my waist, and I relished in the warmth that radiated through me at that. “Some of us will have to go after him.”

“Some?” Paul repeated, skeptically.

“He’s human,” Jake mused, calculating fast, “he won’t get far enough ahead that we can’t catch up. We know there’s a vampire here somewhere, we can’t just throw all of our eggs in one basket.”

He paused, his Alpha voice coming out in full tilt.

“Paul, Quil, follow his path through the woods. Leah, stay here in case the others come back; we can’t leave them unprotected. Embry, Seth, circle the house. Bella, come with me. We’ll scan the beach.”

“Shouldn’t we all follow him?” Leah argued, annoyed at being instructed to stay put. I knew why Jake delegated that task to her, though, and so did she. Leah was one of the best fighters in the Pack, after Jake, and if any one of them could hold off a vampire alone until backup arrived, it was her. “He obviously knows something.”

“He’s just a human,” Jake said again, drawing on his natural authority. “Paul and Quil can handle it. Go.”

Without further argument, the Pack dispersed.

“Come on,” Jake gestured for me to follow him, loping down the stairs with ease. “We’ll head straight for the shore and double back.”

“You don’t want me to stay here?” I asked, afraid of the answer. Corey’s interruption had put a temporary hold on any awkwardness between us, but the fact remained that we needed to talk. I didn’t want Jake’s sudden adrenaline to make him forget that.

He regarded me for a moment, considering something. For a breathless minute, I thought he was going to change his mind. Eventually, he smiled.

“Of course not,” Jake snorted, holding out his hand to me. I took it suspiciously, falling into step behind him. “You’re the only one with insider knowledge on leeches. I’m making sure you’re on my team.”

With a wink, he started off into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you skipped the note: NO CHAPTER NEXT WEEK! Thank you again for reading, and I’ll be back the following week. Cheers!


	9. I Know What You Did Last Summer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m back! Thank you guys so much for your patience last week, I really needed that time to spend with my fiancé.   
> As a token of my appreciation, please enjoy this week’s *dramatic* installment!

The night air felt chillier somehow, now that I knew we weren’t alone.

Jake and I started off at a jog towards the beach, but we soon slowed after realising we were making much more noise than we needed to. Besides, we weren’t necessarily in a rush; we both knew Corey didn’t run this way.

Which meant we weren’t looking for Corey at all, not really. Embry and Seth were looking for Corey. Paul and Quil were looking for Corey. Jake and I…

I glanced up at the side of his face, stoic, eyes trained forward. We weren’t looking for Corey, which left one of two possibilities, maybe a bit of both. We were either looking for a vampire, or looking for an opportunity to talk.

I didn’t know which scared me more.

I’d hurt Jake. I didn’t mean to, of course, I would never try to hurt him. But I had. For the first time in our friendship, Jake left himself vulnerable. He’d let down his walls in a way that he never had before, and I not only brushed him off, but I hadn’t reciprocated. I let him pull away, I let him accept rejection, and I let myself hide my true feelings behind his hurt.

Jake wanted to kiss me.

More than that, he was _going_ to kiss me, and I was going to let him. He was just waiting for a signal, one small sign to let him know that I wanted this too. I never gave it, even though the denial left a gaping hole in my chest and a tangible rift between us. I needed to clear the air, I needed to fix this, but I didn’t know how. When your best friend tries to kiss you and you don’t let him despite how much you really, really want to, how do you come back from that?

I had no idea, and neither did Jacob. To his credit though, he was trying. The coldness and pain that had clung to him after the truck had shattered when Corey attacked me, and for that at least, I was grateful. He held my hand tightly in his as we walked, keeping me close and leading the way along the cool sand.

As if determined to let me drown in my thoughts, the night was quiet around us, disturbed only occasionally by the sounds of the Pack working their way through the woods. Even they grew faint by the time we reached the charred bonfire pit, and then there was nothing but the ocean. I felt the silence like a ringing in my ears, pressure building inside my skull until a pounding headache erupted behind my eyes.

“Are you alright?”

I jumped, peeking nervously up at Jake. I wasn’t alright, not by a longshot, but I had a feeling he wasn’t asking in general. Whatever else was going on, I’d just been attacked by someone. He of all people wasn’t just going to forget about that.

“I’m fine,” I promised, pulling my mouth into a sideways smile that I hoped was reassuring. “Just rattled.”

“Corey didn’t hurt you, did he?” He frowned, the concern in his voice almost bringing tears to my eyes. “I meant to ask before but-”

“He didn’t,” I promised, squeezing his hand in mine. Jake fell silent again, his gaze dropping to our intertwined fingers. “I’m sorry. It’s been a stressful day.”

That was an understatement. From Charlie’s news to Corey’s attack and everything in between, I shouldn’t still be standing. A normal person would’ve curled into a ball by now, hiding away from the rest of the world until things got better. I didn’t have that luxury anymore. Nothing was going to get better until we made it better, and that meant no curling into a ball for me.

Waves crashing noisily against the rocks drew my attention for a moment, my eyes tracing the ragged lines of the horizon in the setting sun. It really was beautiful, even with the circumstances being what they were. I let myself imagine a different time, an alternate world where this trip went exactly as planned. Bonfires, volley ball, swimming, sunbathing, drinking, laughter, and fun. The absence of all that hit me so hard I nearly gasped.

“I’m picking the next vacation,” Jake joked suddenly, as if reading my mind. He was, rather obviously, trying to keep me distracted. It mostly worked, but I wasn’t ignorant to the way he kept his nose turned towards the coastline. He shook his head in disbelief, failing to hide his smile. “You’re officially banned from selecting our future getaways.”

“I never want to vacation again after this,” I complained, considering how serious I actually was. Right now, it was pretty serious. “This is enough excitement for a lifetime.”

“Nah,” Jake scoffed, tugging me closer as we walked. I bumped into his shoulder, my hand still clasped in his. It was decidedly intimate, unintentionally or otherwise. I squirmed. “You’ll want to go again. I’ll make sure of it.”

“Oh, you will, will you?”

There was a pause before he answered, presumably honing in on some small sound I’d missed. We were far from any tree cover here, so if anyone did try to approach us, Jake would hear them well before they ever reached us. He was more relaxed now, some of his ease slipping into the measure of his steps. Satisfied that the sound was nothing, he turned back to me.

“Absolutely,” he grinned, “I can’t stay in Forks my whole life, and I’m not touring the world alone.”

“You want to travel?” I asked, surprised enough to make me forget for a moment that I was supposed to be moping. Jake wasn’t exactly a homebody, but he’d never mentioned anything to me about wanderlust. He nodded, looking a little sheepish.

“I’ve always wanted to visit Chile,” he admitted, swinging our joint hands back and forth. “Weird one, I know. But one of my favourite books as a kid was about a character from Chile, and I got kind of obsessed with it. Eventually that turned into an interest in other countries too, and before I knew it, I wanted to go as far and wide as possible.”

I blinked, walking in silence as I let the revelation sink in. I’d never considered it before, but it was a fitting image. Jake was always moving, always doing things with his hands, always itching to try new things. I’d just assumed he’d put that energy into mechanics or something, but travel seemed… appropriate, somehow. After all these years, Jacob was still surprising me.

“But I couldn’t go anywhere without you,” Jake added, almost as an afterthought. “If I left you here alone, you’d accidentally walk into oncoming traffic or something.”

“And you don’t think I’d trip and go face first off Niagara Falls?”

“At least I’d be there to catch you.”

I rolled my eyes, but it was mostly to hide my blush. The more Jake talked, the faster my heart was beating. I wasn’t sure I was ready for him to realise that yet.

Putting aside the almost-kiss, Jake and I had never explicitly talked about the future before. It was uncertain at best, what with his Pack duties and all. The farthest we’d ever planned was college, and that was mostly a pipe dream until graduation hit and things were actually calm for once. Between vampire exes, tribal legends, and functionally immortal wolves, I made it a habit to take things one day at a time.

But, clearly, Jake was thinking about the future, at least in part. And he was thinking about me, being a part of it.

The realisation made me both ecstatic and terrified. On the one hand, I didn’t want to think about my life without him in it, and the knowledge that he was planning on keeping me around made my heart flutter. On the other, I couldn’t ignore the niggling voice in the back of my head reminding me that at any time, any moment, Jake could meet someone and all of that could go straight to hell.

Leah’s stories echoed in my mind, but I pushed them aside. It was too confusing to think about right now, when my heart was already at war with my head. I couldn’t let this line of conversation go on any longer, not with so many unsaid things hanging in the air between us.

“Listen, Jake-” I began, my grip on his hand suddenly very tight. “I think we need to talk about what happened before. In the truck.”

He visibly flinched, which already wasn’t a good sign.

“Yeah,” he coughed out a strained laugh, rubbing his free hand over the back of his neck. I knew that move; that was his ‘I don’t want to talk about this so I’m going to deflect like crazy’ move. I took a steadying breath. “Sorry about all that. I kinda got caught up in the moment.”

“I wasn’t asking for an apology,” I insisted, and the spark of hope that lit his face in that instant nearly crushed me. I didn’t want to squander that hope, but I knew I didn’t have a choice. I forced myself to keep going. “I just don’t want you to think that… well that we could…”

I trailed, letting the implication simmer, focussing unnecessarily hard on each step as the sand shifted beneath my feet. Jake’s hope died with the flick of a switch, his expression drawing in on itself.

“Don’t worry,” he grunted, rolling his shoulders. “I know.”

I should’ve left it at that. Jake wasn’t happy, but he’d bounce back. He always did. Give him a few minutes and then he’d be himself again, accepting what we both always knew to be true. That was the smart thing to do, the right thing to do. Let him feel for a while, and then everything would blow over and things would go back to the way they were.

_But I don’t want things to go back to the way they were._

The thought slipped out before I could reign it in, stilling my heart. The truth of it washed over me like an icy downpour, seeping into my bones and making me shiver.

No, I didn’t want things to go back to the way they were. I involuntarily started to replay the scenario in the truck, this time ignoring Angela’s texts and putting all of my attention on Jake, on his hands at my back, on his lips, parted ever so slightly, waiting for me to give him the okay. In my head, I did, easing into his embrace with the relief of slipping into a hot bath after a long day.

But that was just in my head. In reality, I forced those thoughts to the back of my mind and slammed a lock on them, throwing the key as far away as I could.

“That’s for the best,” I said tightly, as much to convince myself as to convince him. “We both know this wouldn’t work out.”

“ _You think_ this wouldn’t work,” Jake argued. “I never once said I agreed.”

I glared at him.

“You have to agree,” I shot back, pain lancing through my chest. “It’s your stupid werewolf DNA that’s the problem in the first place.”

I regretted the words the second they left my lips, but it was too late to take them back. Defiance flashed in his eyes as Jake opened his mouth to quip something, but he stopped himself. I watched as he took a deep breath, collecting his temper before answering me.

“Don’t start,” he sighed, letting his head fall back to stare at the dark sky. “I’m sick and fucking tired of people telling me what my life’s going to be. I don’t need to hear it from you too.”

“It’s kind of hard for me to ignore, Jacob.” I whined, finding my irritation and clutching it for dear life. If I was angry, I wouldn’t accidentally say something stupid. “People grow apart all the time, and most of them never know why. I’m in the unique position of knowing _exactly_ why I could lose you at any given moment, and _still_ being powerless to stop it. You think I can just forget about something like that?”

“Are you serious?” Jake whipped his head to look directly at me, utterly bewildered. “You honestly think that’s possible? You have so little faith in me that you think I would just _bail_ on you without a second thought?”

“My understanding is that it’s not exactly your choice,” I rebutted dryly. “What if your imprint doesn’t like me, Jake? You’re not going to side with me over your fucking soulmate.”

“Can we just forget about my fucking imprint?” Jake huffed suddenly, his temper coming back in a flash. I knew he would never hurt me, so he didn’t scare me when he was angry, but I could understand why it would bother people who didn’t know him. Jake could be a little… explosive at times. “Jesus Christ. That’s all anyone wants to talk about these days, and I don’t even have one. It’s not going to happen, okay? So just drop it.”

“How do you know that?”

Jake glowered at me, carefully studying my face for any betrayal of my thoughts. I didn’t give him one, schooling my features into as neutral a mask as I could manage.

Imprinting was the one thing Jake and I never talked about. Not that I couldn’t ask him questions if I wanted to, I just didn’t want to. The uncertainty of his future loomed over us like a dark cloud, and if I spent all my time worrying over when he was going to meet the one person he was destined to spend the rest of his life with, I would never sleep again. I wanted to enjoy my time with Jake, no matter how much of it I had left.

But now… now, things were different. For years we’d skated around our feelings for each other, always knowing but never admitting the mutual attraction hiding just below the surface of our friendship. We’d done this dance for so long, a wordless, necessary agreement in place to protect us both. The ice was finally beginning to shatter, exposing the cracks neither of us wanted to acknowledge, but always knew were there.

The time for secrets and half-truths was finally over.

“I just know,” Jake insisted, kicking at the sand and spraying it in a wide arc. “It’s not the easiest thing to explain, Bells.”

“Try,” I pleaded, suppressing the desperation in my tone as best as I could. We’d hit the point of no return; I couldn’t turn back even if I wanted to. Jake hedged his cards onto the table back in the truck, but I couldn’t look at them until I understood.

Jake chewed on his words for a minute, searching his brain for the right way to say what was on his mind.

“When I look at my life and what I want,” he began, speaking slowly but picking up speed as his thoughts clicked into place, “I already have everything. I have my family, my friends, and I have you. I’m not missing anything. There’s no room for an imprint.”

“I bet Sam thought the same thing,” I pointed out softly, not wanting him to think I was baiting him. I was. “You won’t know until you meet them. And then you’ll have your Emily, and there might not be any room for me.”

Jake dropped my hand suddenly, looking like someone had struck him.

“What’s gotten into you?” Jake had been walking towards the boathouse near the shore, the one that I’d seen the night of the bonfire, but he slowed now. “Look, I fucked up back there. I shouldn’t have let things get as far as they did, and I’m sorry that I almost kissed you. This isn’t something we should be talking about right now, but that’s on me. I did this. I made things complicated. But where the hell is all this coming from, Bella?”

I didn’t have an answer right away. Jake stared at me, waiting, and when I didn’t speak, he continued.

“No one could ever replace you,” he vowed. “Even if I _did_ imprint, which I won’t, I would never abandon you like that.”

“How can you promise that-?”

“I just can!” Jake pinched the bridge of his nose, hard enough to turn the pads of his fingers white. “Why are we even talking about this? It’s a moot point, alright? I know me better than anyone, and I know what I want. I _don’t_ want some imprint I’ve never met before; I don’t want to imprint _at all._ ”

“But _why_?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the answer out loud, but the question left my lips in a hurried burst of anxiety. “Why don’t you want to meet the person you’re meant to be with?”

“Because I already have!”

He stared at me meaningfully. I bit my lip.

The barren beach lay dormant around us, any signs of life slithering just out of reach in the darkness, leaving a blank canvas for our frustration. I felt the cold in my very bones, snaking into my chest and constricting my lungs until my ribs ached.

Even if I believed Leah, even if her stories were true, how would I know if Jake really had successfully defied the universe and chosen me? I wouldn’t, not until it was far, far too late.

My headache was now bordering on a migraine.

“Fine,” I sighed, my shoulders drooping. There was no point in skimming the issue anymore. Time to cut right to the chase. “Fine, Jake. Let’s say we do date. Let’s say we get together and it works out, and then twenty years from now, we’re walking down the street, and you see someone out of the corner of your eye. Your _whole world_ shifts, and you just _know_ this is the person the universe wants you to be with.”

“And?”

“Would you still pick me then?”

“What kind of a question is that?” Jake bristled, furrowing his brows. “Bella, do you have any idea how important you are to me?”

“Leah was important to Sam, too!” I snapped back, my cheeks hot. Frustration bubbled in my stomach, spilling from my lips. “I don’t think you understand what you’re asking me to risk.”

“I’m not asking you to risk anything!” Jake threw his hands in the air, coming to an abrupt stop next to the volleyball net. I whirled to face him, my arms immediately crossing over my chest. “You’re not listening to me, Bells! I would never, _ever,_ leave you. Not for anything. Friend, girlfriend, wife, whatever! I want you in my life, and _nobody_ is going to change that!”

“How can you promise that?” I demanded, feeling my eyes well. “How can you say that when you’ve _seen_ the damage imprinting can do? I can’t lose you, Jake! I just can’t.”

“You won’t,” he swore, shoving his hand roughly through his hair. “I don’t know how else I can explain this to you! I _will never_ imprint on someone. I’m meant to be with you. _I don’t give a shit what the universe says._ Bella, for God’s sake-!” Jake cursed, indecision marring his features, until a steely resolve settled in his eyes. “I love you.”

“You-” I froze, my heart dropping into my stomach. “You… you what?”

“I love you,” Jake repeated, confidence growing every second. “I’ve been in love with you for years, and I want to be with you. Give me a chance to prove it.”

My body froze, ice creeping up my veins. In all our years of friendship, Jake had never- I mean, I always thought, but-

Jake loved me.

“You say that now,” I mumbled, shock muddling the spark of anger I still felt. “But Jake, you can’t-”

“I love you,” Jake said again, cutting me off. “Do you love me too?”

“Jacob-”

“Do you,” Jake repeated, his breath coming shallow and fast, “love me too?”

I stared at him, hard, frustration and pain and longing pulsing wildly through my veins.

“Of course I do, but-”

“Then shut up.”

Before my startled brain could catch up to what was happening, Jake crossed the distance between us in two long strides, slipped his hand roughly around the back of my neck, yanked me into his embrace, and kissed me.

“Mmf-!” I squeaked in surprise, pushing my palms firmly against Jake’s chest. I wrapped my fingers tightly in his shirt, not sure if I was going to shove him away or tug him closer.

After a split second of uncertainty, I realised there was never a question.

Jake groaned as I arched my back, pressing the length of my body against his and igniting a fire beneath my skin. His hand abandoned my neck, dropping to my hips and holding me there, fitted snugly to him. I didn’t want to think anymore- I was tired, too tired to fight- all I wanted was to lose myself in this moment, and drown in him.

Jake again seemed to read my mind; his kisses grew deeper, more urgent, quickly devolving into something raw and unfiltered. I gasped as his teeth tugged impatiently at my lower lip, swallowing the sound with his tongue. I clung to him, feeling my balance slowly abandoning me. My head was swirling deliciously, clouding any sense of danger or responsibility I had left. I didn’t care why we were out here, didn’t care that someone might find us, and I didn’t get the impression that Jake did either.

Corey, vampires, the Pack, the beach, everything felt very, very far away.

My knees began to tremble, overwhelmed by the sheer passion in his touch. I could’ve sworn I felt Jake smirk against my lips, but I didn’t mind. My hands were still on his chest, so I could feel how fast his heart was racing.

He was as much of a mess as I was.

His hands fell lower, gripping the backs of my thighs, and then I was in his arms. My legs wrapped tightly around his hips, my fingers finally loosening from his shirt and moving instead to tangle in his thick hair. Jake made a low sound in the back of his throat, one that sent shivers down my spine. He broke our kiss at last, moving his mouth to my neck, his breath hot against my flushed skin.

“I love you,” I murmured, my voice barely audible above the breeze. The words burned as they left my tongue, but it was a good burn. A relieved burn. “Jake, I love you so much.”

Jake’s lips moved along the slope of my neck to my jaw, drawing quiet moans from my throat.

“Fuck,” he whispered, gipping my thighs tighter. “Bella, I-”

“Well it’s about damn time.”

I shrieked, immediately losing my grip on Jake. He held fast, keeping me from falling backwards into the sand, as we both turned sharply towards the source of the very amused voice.

Embry and Seth were standing just a few meters away, leaning against the boathouse Jake and I were heading over to inspect.

“Jesus,” Jake huffed, releasing his breath in one fell swoop. He adjusted his grip on my legs, helping me slide down his body until I was on my own two feet again. I couldn’t look at Seth and Embry, not directly, as a deep red flush inched up my neck. “You guys scared the shit out of me. I thought you were circling around the driveway?”

“We did,” Seth assured him, his smile just a bit awkward. “It was clean, so we doubled back to see if you two needed help.”

“Good thing too,” Embry grinned wickedly, crossing his arms over his chest. “I didn’t realise this was all a big cover up so you two could bone. By the way, sand? Not the best surface choice. Gets _everywhere_.”

My blush deepened until it even reached my ears, making Embry cackle like a deranged crow.

“Man,” he snorted, tears collecting in the corners of his eyes, “I didn’t think you two of all people would be playing the role of the horned-up teenagers on this trip.”

“Shut it, Call,” Jake rolled his eyes, clearly much less uncomfortable than I was. “Since you so graciously volunteered to join us, let’s finish up so we can get back to the beach house.”

“And rooms with doors that lock?” Embry guessed, waggling his eyebrows in my general direction. I tried to copy Jake, rolling my eyes and acting uninterested, but I didn’t pull it off as well. Embry just continued to laugh, grabbing Seth’s shoulder and spinning him around towards the front of the boathouse.

We were both quiet until Embry and Seth were out of sight, leaving us partially alone again. The reality of the situation was trying to sink in, but my happiness batted it restlessly away.

I kissed Jake. _I kissed Jake!_

“Sorry,” Jake murmured, low enough that I had to strain to make it out. “I didn’t hear him come up. I would’ve stopped sooner.”

“It’s okay,” I promised, tucking my hair nervously behind my ears. My heart was finally starting to slow, bringing my rational thought back with it. “I’m not sure I would’ve wanted you to stop, even if you did hear him.”

I blinked, startled at my own brazenness. I kept waiting for the awkward- the strange sort of charged tension that followed a first kiss, especially an unexpectedly heated one- but it never came. Warmth was flowing through me like a wild river, making me forget every factor rallying against us.

Jake seemed just as surprised as I was, but much more pleasantly so. He groaned, sliding his arm around my waist and pulling me against him.

“Do not talk like that when we’re in public,” he pleaded, dropping his head into the crook of my neck. I felt his lips ghost across my skin, making my stomach flip. “I’m not exactly known for my self control, Bells.”

“You act like I don’t already know that,” I teased, letting my fingers slip just under the hem of his t-shirt. Jake drew in a sharp breath. “Come on, Embry and Seth are already way ahead of us.”

“You’re gonna pay for this, Swan,” Jake growled, finally releasing me and pulling himself together. I smiled innocently, starting towards the boathouse.

“I’m counting on it.”

“Guys?”

Embry’s voice rattled through the air, bringing us to immediate attention. It was strained, where it hadn’t been just moments ago. I’d rarely heard Embry without some sort of teasing in his voice.

This wasn’t good.

“Embry?” Jake yelled back, already on the move. “What is it? Is it Corey?”

“It’s not Corey.”

Jake and I rounded the corner of the boathouse at the same time, coming to an abrupt stop as we nearly collided with the open door.

Embry and Seth were standing back, staring at it with sickly expression on their faces. Jake moved around the door before I did, but he wasn’t quick enough to stop me from looking for myself.

Inside the boathouse, propped up against a rotting barrel, was the body of Sawyer’s niece.


	10. 30 Days of Night

“What the fuck,” Embry cursed, lurching back from the boathouse in disgust. He almost collided with Jake, sending them both into a jumbled pile of limbs in the sand. Jake caught him at the last moment, steadying him. “What the _fuck._ ”

Too startled to be embarrassed, Embry just stared.

“Shut up,” Jake hissed, his words strained and crackling. He was rattled, just like Embry, but he couldn’t show it. Not when he was the only one around to take charge. “Help me lift her out.”

He was leaning over the body now, sniffing as delicately as he could. I wondered for a minute if the scent of decay was masking more important notes that he was trying to pick up on, but quickly dismissed the idea. There was no unpleasantness that I could smell, so Cecilia couldn’t have been out here long.

Just then, as he was reaching for Cecilia’s pale, limp arm, the meaning of Jake’s words hit me.

“We can’t touch her!” I gasped, clutching Jake’s arm in a panic. “What if this wasn’t a vampire? We’d have to call the police, and then your DNA and prints are all over her!”

“This was 100% a vampire,” Jake muttered, almost more to himself than to me. He didn’t touch the body though, just reached around it and began inspecting the rest of the boathouse. It was smaller than I would’ve expected, more of a shed than an actual building, but it was just large enough to fit a dory.

“It stinks of leech,” Embry agreed, covering his nose and trying not to retch. I couldn’t smell what they did, but I couldn’t deny there was an eerie sense of being watched hanging in the humid air. Maybe I was just projecting, but to me, the tragedy was palpable.

“Is it the same one that was following us before?” I wondered, guessing from Jake’s clenched jaw that it was. He nodded.

“How did it slip past us?” Embry cursed, kicking violently at an unsuspecting piece of driftwood. “We’ve been snooping around since we got here!”

“What do you mean?” I frowned. “Can’t you track it from here?”

Jake, Embry, and Seth exchanged a look.

“Normally, yes,” Jake sighed, leaning back on his haunches. “But there’s nothing _to_ track from here. The boathouse is drenched in leech stink, but it doesn’t go anywhere.”

“How is that possible?” I took a half-step to look around the back of the building, expecting to see a hidden passage somewhere. “If it dragged the… the body here, then it would’ve had to leave a trail, wouldn’t it?”

“There are ways to cover scents,” Seth murmured, staring intently at his hands. “If it did that, it must’ve known it was dealing with wolves. And that we’d be looking out for it.”

“Which means it knows more about us than we do about it,” Jake growled. “And that pisses me the fuck off.”

The feeling was very much mutual as silence descended, reflecting on the gravity of the situation we were now in.

“What do we do?”

Seth was the one who’d asked, but we were all thinking it. What the hell were we going to do now?

We had a body, a vampire, a massive missing persons case, and no answers.

“We can’t tell the others,” Jake concluded suddenly, straightening. From the look on his face, I could tell he hadn’t found anything useful in his prodding. “There’s a vampire around here, and it’s taken a life. If we tell everyone what we’ve found, police will be here within the hour. We can’t risk any more lives.”

“So, we’re just going to hide a body?” Embry snorted, dumbfounded. “That seems smart.”

“Yeah Embry,” Jake rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. “Let’s just bury it here in the sand, great idea.”

“Well what _do_ you want to do?” I interjected quickly; Jake and Embry hardly ever seriously fought, but with stress as high as it was, I didn’t want to take the risk. “We can’t just leave her here, can we?”

“We’ll have to,” Jake sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. He looked years older when he did that. “Leave her here exactly as we found her. We’ll try to keep the others away, but if they stumble across her there isn’t much we can do.”

Embry and Seth dipped their heads silently. I bit my lip, but also said nothing.

I was thinking about Sawyer, still wondering, still hoping that her niece would walk back through the front door, sheepish smile on her face. Praying that this was all a big misunderstanding, that, in the worst-case scenario, she’d fallen off the wagon and would turn up eventually, broke but alive. We now knew that would never happen, and we were purposefully keeping it from her.

I knew _why_ we were keeping it from her, but the taste it left on my tongue was decidedly sour.

And what about the other 79 women out there? Were they dead too? Would we find them, drained and pale, scattered throughout the forest?

Jake’s hand appeared at my back, startling me. I peered up at him, lip caught firmly between my teeth. He knew I was upset; how could I not be? But he also knew we were doing the right thing.

I forgot sometimes how smart Jake is. I mean, I knew he was smart, but I was so used to seeing him as the big, lovable goof ball that tried to set a soccer ball on fire last spring break just to see what would happen. He’s fun, and he’s funny, but that’s not all he is. He’s also the true Alpha of this pack. And he could read me like an open book.

“Scent disguising is difficult,” Jake told me, his voice warm and comforting. “Even if the vamp managed to cover its tracks around here, the trail has to pick up again close by. We’ll find it. Find it, and end this.”

He meant every word, but there was a lingering air of uncertainty that made me nervous. Whatever this was, we needed all hands on deck. And that meant updating the reinforcements.

“I should call Emmett,” I whispered eventually, my phone weighing heavily in my pocket. If this vampire had killed a human, he’d want to know about it sooner rather than later. Jake’s jaw twitched, but he didn’t argue- not happy, but tolerating. It would have to do for now.

Emmett’s conversation was still open from earlier, so I tapped on his contact and waited. No point worrying about whether or not he was alone, things had gotten too serious for that luxury.

“Hey Short Straw,” Emmett picked up almost immediately, sounding as relaxed and carefree as usual. I would normally take that as a sign that Edward and Rosalie were nowhere to be found, but with Emmett, that wasn’t always a guarantee. “What’s up? Couldn’t wait to hear my sultry voice again?”

“Hey Em,” I rolled my eyes, smirking despite the severity of the situation. Emmett was a lot like Jake that way, easily able to make you forget about your problems without even trying. “Things have taken a bit of a turn here.”

I glanced at Jake, who was keeping his gaze firmly on the horizon. I could tell from his posture that he was annoyed, whether that was from the knowledge that we were voluntarily working with a vampire or the fact that that vampire was always a bit too familiar with me, I couldn’t say for sure. I _was_ sure that he could hear everything Emmett was saying, though.

“What kind of a turn?” Emmett prodded, still not quite realising what was going on. “Don’t tell me you have a craving for some fang and want me to take care of it?”

Jake made a low sound in the back of his throat, which Emmett heard. He laughed, big booming cackles echoing through the line.

“Relax, Bingo,” he snickered, “I’m a taken man.”

“Em,” I cut in, noting a worrying vein popping on Jake’s forehead, “there’s been an attack.”

The line went silent so quickly I thought the call dropped.

“What kind of attack?” Emmett asked suddenly, his voice hardened. I’d heard that tone only a few times before, and none were particularly happy.

“The vampire killed a woman,” I explained, dropping my words to a whisper. “We found her body near the house. Jake says he can smell the vampire all over her.”

Silence again, and then-

“Shit,” Emmett huffed, and I could picture him running his hand over his face. “Shit, this complicates things.”

“No kidding,” I mumbled.

“Alright, okay,” Emmett’s brain was working overtime, I could tell from the tension coming through the line. “I can’t do anything to help from here. I’ll grab Alice and we’ll come meet you to figure this out. Just tell your hound dogs not to attack us when we get there.”

“No promises,” Jake rolled his eyes.

“Where are you again?”

I told him.

“Okay,” Emmett sighed. I heard shuffling in the background, like he was moving things around. “We can be there in a few hours.”

“Be careful Angie and the others don’t see you,” I pleaded, knowing full well that he would be. Especially if Alice was tagging along to babysit him. “See you soon.”

“Hang tight, Short Straw,” Emmett took a moment to purposefully return some of the ease to his tone, sounding like he was forcing a smile for my benefit. “The cavalry is coming.”

.

With nothing left for us to do at the boathouse, we closed the door and left everything exactly as we’d found it. Seth even trailed after us, using a branch to disturb the sand and mar our footprints. By the time we arrived back at the house, it was like we were never there to begin with.

We didn’t talk much until we were within earshot of the windows. To my great relief, Jess’s car was back in the driveway, which meant that we had to be careful about our story. First and foremost, though, we needed to find out if Leah had told them anything.

“ _Where the hell have you been?_ ”

I didn’t make it two feet through the door before I was harpooned, Angela colliding into me with the force of a freight train.

“I tried to tell them Bella needed some air after what happened at the restaurant, so you went for a walk,” Leah called lazily from the couch, not bothering to sit up. She made eye contact with Jake, confirming that was all she’d told them, and I relaxed. “But they’ve been freaking out since they got here.”

The other wolves were back too, communicating silently with Jake across the room. Paul looked more pissed than usual, meaning that they’d somehow lost Corey. Given the way the vamp had slipped past Jake, I wasn’t entirely surprised.

“Of course we are!” Jess threw her hands in the air dramatically, stomping over to us. She was pissed, I could tell from the flare of her nostrils and the heavy wrinkle in her forehead, but she wasn’t just pissed. She was scared too, more than she had been before. Something was wrong.

“What happened?” I asked, taking Angie’s hands in mine. She wasn’t as angry as Jess, but she was definitely rattled. I knew Leah wouldn’t have let them think anything was wrong, so whatever happened must’ve been on the drive back.

“A newscast came over the radio,” Eric explained from the kitchen, fiddling with whatever he could get his hands on. “We didn’t even make it to the grocery store.”

“What did the newscast say?” I prompted. I was fairly sure I already knew, but I didn’t want to blurt it out in case I was wrong. “Are they opening the roads again?”

Everyone shook their heads, unease palpable in the air. That one was a longshot.

“They finally made an official statement on what was happening,” Angie murmured, reaching behind me to lock the door. She did it with a tone of defiance, as if she were warning it to stay that way. “Bella, there have been over 80 women that’ve gone missing in just the last few _days_.”

“What the hell?” I gasped, trying to sound appropriately shocked. “How have we not heard anything? Do they know what’s going on?”

“They’re keeping the roads closed until they figure it out,” Jess sighed, looking defeated. “They told everyone to stay inside as much as possible and to travel in groups.”

“We’re just glad you guys weren’t out walking alone,” Angie breathed, hugging me properly. I eyed Jake over her shoulder, silently asking him what we should do. He shook his head; we couldn’t talk now. Later.

“Can your dad do anything, Bella?” Mike asked, sounding far more stressed than he had that morning. I couldn’t say I blamed him. “He’s gotta be able to do something, can’t he?”

“He still can’t get past the road closure,” I told them. There was no point in hiding that; it was true, and it might make them feel better to see I was being more forthcoming with information. “He’s keeping an eye on the situation and doing what he can to help, but it might take a few days. He won’t give up on us.”

That did seem to ease off some of the tension, an almost comfortable silence descending on the room. I took the opportunity to look around, noticing that in our absence, the others had gone ahead with our plan to pull the mattresses into the living room. Or Leah had gotten bored and done it herself.

“We should go around the house and make sure all the windows are closed and locked,” Jake announced suddenly, double-checking the front door. Angela didn’t seem to take any offense. “I think we’ll be okay to head outside, but never alone and not after dark if we can help it. Every evening when we come back in, we’ll check the locks.”

“Good idea,” Angie agreed, grabbing Jess by the elbow. “We’ll split up and each take an area of the house.”

“Bells?” Jake held his hand out to me, and I took it quietly, trying to hide my blush.

In spite of everything, Jake and I had just kissed. I couldn’t just push that from my mind like it was nothing. Now, his little gestures of affection felt more intimate somehow, even though no one outside of us would be able to tell the difference.

Well, except maybe Embry and Seth.

Everyone dispersed at the same time, all but Leah, who hadn’t moved from the couch. Apparently, she’d taken responsibility for the main area of the house.

Jake led me down the hall, checking the windows along the way. We didn’t talk much, focussed on the task at hand, until we came to the room Leah and I shared. It was at the end of the hallway, so there were two windows on the far wall; Jake went directly to them and pulled the locks and shades. I expected him to leave again right away, but he didn’t. He reached behind me and shut the door- only then did he speak.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” he mused, his eyes darting worriedly to the closed door. I guessed that he was listening to the others, sounds that I couldn’t quite hear. “But I need to talk to you.”

“Okay,” I nodded, leaning as casually as I could against the oak dresser I’d claimed. “I think the newscast actually works in our favor. No one is going to want to explore anytime soon-”

“Not that,” Jake cut me off, fidgeting in a way I’d never seen before. He was jumpy, on edge, like a jackrabbit sniffing for predators. I bit back a frown. “We’ll have a meeting with the Pack later to go over… that.”

“Okay…” I said again, slowly this time. “Jake, what’s-?”

He shook his head sharply, signalling me into silence. I held my breath as he listened, no doubt recognising that one of the others had gotten close enough to eavesdrop. After a moment, his shoulders dipped and he exhaled.

“Listen,” he stammered, a deep flush creeping up his neck. “About what happened on the beach. I don’t want you to think- I mean I didn’t just say those things because-”

I watched in a sort of dazed fascination as Jake tried and failed to articulate whatever was on his mind. He stumbled over word after word, never quite making it to the point. In all my life, I’d never seen him so tongue-tied. Except maybe when we took that Latin class.

“We’re in a really stressful situation right now,” Jake muttered eventually, huffing. “I don’t want you to think I was trying to take advantage.”

Trying to take-?

The realisation hit me all at once, and I had to throw all of my energy into hiding my laughter. Jake was worried- worried that he’d manipulated me into kissing him. Worried that I’d just gotten swept up in the moment. Worried that I’d made a mistake.

I stepped purposefully across the room, stopping when I was directly in front of him. I placed my palms flat against his chest, spreading my fingertips gently across his collarbone. Jake watched me almost warily, his heart hammering against his ribs.

“Jacob, listen to me.” I kept my voice low, so as not to be overheard, but my words were strong. “You have nothing to worry about.”

He didn’t look convinced, searching my face for any sign of doubt or hesitation. I almost rolled my eyes at the irony- not even an hour ago, he’d been passionately making his case as to why this was a good idea. Now, the roles were somehow reversed.

“I know things are… complicated,” I admitted, pushing my tongue against the inside of my cheek. “But you were right before; I was scared. I still _am_ scared, but more than that, I trust you. I trust you, and I believe you.”

“Just like that?” Jake quirked an eyebrow, his lips pulled tight. “After everything, it’s really going to be that easy?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say it was ‘easy’,” I glared at him, “Leah’s been pleading your case for a while. You should really thank her.”

That threw him for a loop, but before he could ask me to explain, I pressed on.

“Jake, I’ve been unsure about this for a very long time,” I confided, watching as a flicker of despair passed over his face. “I wanted to understand, but I couldn’t, and I wasn’t ready to take that risk. After talking to you today, I know that I’ll _never_ fully understand this. I just have to take your word for it, and I’m finally willing to do that. But if that’s the case, then I need you to be sure for me.”

“I am sure,” Jake promised, covering my hands with his. “Bella, I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. I just don’t want you to commit to something if this isn’t what you want. The most important thing to me is that you’re happy, even if it isn’t with me.”

I suppressed a smile. Leave it to Jake to assume that this had anything to do with my attraction to him.

“Jacob,” I smirked, eyes darting inadvertently to the vacant bedframes. “If there was still a mattress in here, I would’ve thrown you onto it the second you shut the door.”

Jake’s eyes rounded, his pupils dilating impossibly. I held his gaze, making sure he knew exactly how serious I was.

“I love you,” I told him fiercely, my fingers twisting in the fabric of his shirt. “I’m trusting you with my heart. Please don’t break it.”

“Never,” Jake vowed, his arms wrapping swiftly around my waist. He pulled me to him, crushing me against the hard contours of his body. “Isabella Marie Swan, I will never, _ever_ hurt you. I swear to you-”

“Just kiss me again.”

I didn’t need to ask him twice. Jake’s mouth covered mine with a tender intimacy that wasn’t there the first time or, if it was, was masked by the urgency exploding between us. His lips were soft, savoring each kiss like it might be our last.

I wanted more than that. I’d been waiting years to kiss Jake, and I was tired of being patient. My hands trailed up over his shoulders to the back of his head, stretching through his thick hair. I pulled.

A low groan rumbled through Jake’s chest, and when he looked at me this time, his eyes were nearly black. My heart skipped at the hunger I found there, devouring me with his intense gaze.

“Bells,” Jake whispered, his breath washing delicately over my skin. I shuddered, leaning into his touch despite everything inside of me screaming that this wasn’t the time, wasn’t the place. Truth be told, I didn’t care.

He was kissing me again before I had time to think about anything else, his arms winding around my body and encasing me in the heat of his skin, the scent of pine and rain drowning out all other senses. I felt my toes leave the floor for just a second, the brief sensation of weightlessness severing my last ties to reality.

My back collided with the wall, disturbing an unremarkable framed photo of a starfish hanging next to the light switch. I mewled, a soft, delicate sound that barely pierced the air directly around us, but that seemed to send a bolt of lightning through Jake. His entire frame tensed, fighting to control the sudden desperation sparking his touch. He broke away, breathing hard, trying to be quiet.

“We-” he paused, gathering his breath. “We can’t do this here.”

He was right of course, but the disappointment that surged through me was palpable on my face. Jake saw it, gazing longingly at my mouth.

“Embry’s getting ready to bring the whole house in on us if we take a minute longer,” he admitted, the words burning him as they left his lips. “I promise, that’ll be a lot worse than him and Seth accidentally happening by.”

“I know,” I conceded, forcing myself to relax. We were at someone else’s house, two rooms away from our friends, with a killer vampire on the loose. We couldn’t have found a worse time if we tried. “Let’s go, before Embry spills the beans on us.”

“Oh, it’s _way_ too late for that,” Jake groaned bitterly, rubbing the side of his neck in annoyance. “We’re in for a long night, Swan, and not the fun kind.”


	11. Underworld

“Any luck on your end, Bill?”

Charlie stared helplessly at the cell phone in his hand, never hating a device more in his life. It was useless. He’d been up all night, making call after call, pleading with people, screaming at people, bringing up old favors, but none of it had gotten him anywhere. Bella and Jake were still stuck in the next town over, and he was still unable to help them.

“Not since the last time you asked,” Billy grunted, his home phone pressed firmly to his ear. Charlie knew he was being pushy, but he also knew that Billy understood. No matter what Jake could do or how strong he was, that was Billy’s kid out there. He was just as worried as Charlie.

“Christ in a handbasket,” Charlie muttered. He didn’t think he’d ever been this strung up, except perhaps the night he’d lost Bella. But he couldn’t think about that now- he had messages to return, check ins to do, emails to open. He couldn’t let himself get distracted.

Being a member of law enforcement in Forks was easy. The crime was petty, simple. No one ever got hurt, not really, and even less filed actual complaints. The residents of Forks were a ‘shut up and deal with it’ kind of crowd, so Charlie’s days were mostly spent monitoring traffic violations and the occasional neighbor dispute. Despite all that, he’d never say his job was stress-free.

While Charlie didn’t get in his car every morning wondering if that day would be his last, a different kind of danger plagued his hours on the clock: Politics. Town politics were important in a place as small as Forks; doubly so when crime rates were low. Charlie had to find the balance between town management and civilians, doing his job correctly while maintaining a friendly relationship with everyone. It was usually a fairly easy task, but when the new mayor was elected last year, things got a bit more difficult.

The old mayor- good old Tom McAvoy- was born and raised in Forks. His family was respected, revered even, and he had an excellent rapport with the residents. Tom was the best mayor Forks had ever seen, and it was a painful loss when he contracted pneumonia last Spring and it took the sixty-eight-year-old out of politics for good. Then came Frederick.

Frederick Nolan was an outsider as far as the people of Forks were concerned. He was born in New York, far away from Washington, and moved there at the insistence of his wife. Her family were Forks natives, but that didn’t rub off on Frederick. He was a city man through and through; it was a miracle he was elected at all what with his poor reputation around town. But come election day, to everyone’s surprise and dismay, Frederick beat the odds through a combination of clever campaigning and strategic donations and claimed the chair for himself.

Charlie only paid attention to politics when he had to- namely, when it affected his job. Frederick didn’t like him, that much he knew, but he couldn’t fire him. Frederick needed all the support he could get, and Charlie was the most beloved member of the local police by a huge margin. If Charlie were ever fired, it would have to be for a concrete, indisputable reason in order to prevent a public revolt. Charlie didn’t plan to give Frederick that reason.

This also meant making friends with other members of town management, which resulted in quite a few people Charlie could call for help with getting his daughter and her friends safely home. He just hoped that one of them wasn’t Frederick.

If Fred got word of something unsavory going on, even if it were in the next town over, he’d raise hell and ride it into the next town election. Every person from here to Kentucky would know about those Forks kids trapped in a big abduction case, and Charlie just wasn’t prepared to deal with that right now. Crowd control was time consuming; he didn’t have the energy to keep the public at bay _and_ work around these roadblocks. It just wasn’t possible.

_Beep._

Charlie’s old Windows computer dinged from across the room, catching his attention. It sounded like an email had just come in.

As soon as Charlie learned of Bella’s situation, he and Billy set up camp in the garage. Charlie brought over his work laptop, his home computer, and his cell phone, prepared to use whatever he could to help them. He sincerely hoped this most recent email was bearing the fruits of their labor.

He scanned the message; sent from a work email he didn’t immediately recognize. As he read, his expression lifted.

“Hey Bill?” Charlie called over his shoulder. “Roll over here for a second. I think I got something.”

.

When Jake and I emerged from the guest bedroom, quiet and a little flustered, a noticeable snicker rippled throughout the room. Apparently, Jake hadn’t been exaggerating when he implied Embry already spilled about us.

I thought we were going to get away with it- not avoiding everyone finding out of course, I knew that would happen eventually- but I thought we’d have a short grace period. I thought our friends would have the decency to let us announce it on our own terms.

Clearly, I’d forgotten who our friends were.

All it took was for Jake to stealthily slip his hand into mine, and the laughter began in earnest.

“Jesus Christ, it took you long enough!” Quil hollered, to a resounding chorus of agreement. “I was starting to think Embry would find someone first!”

A pillow collided firmly with Quil’s skull, conveniently thrown from Embry’s side of the room.

“So, what do we call you now?” Jess rolled her eyes, acting disinterested, but I could tell she was a little happy too. Jess was similar to Paul in that way; you had to peer through the attitude to see the kindness. “Jakella? Bellake? Something less nauseating?”

“If you ever call us either of those, I’ll purposely break up with him,” I gagged, suppressing a shudder. Couple names were… not my thing. Judging from the pained look on Jake’s face, they weren’t his either.

“Ouch,” Embry chuckled, “less than a day with you and she’s already planning a breakup? Feels bad, Jakey.”

Jake snorted, crossing his arms over his chest and smirking at Embry.

“That’s rich,” he mused, “coming from the guy that had to ask me what a blowjob was after _his mom_ made a joke about it.”

Embry’s ears noticeably pinked as the laughter became uproarious.

“We were like thirteen, jackass.” Embry grumbled, accepting his defeat.

The only person who didn’t make any joke or comment was of course Leah. She caught my eye when we first re-entered the living room, raising a brow in question, silently asking if everything was okay, if I was comfortable with this decision. I gave her an imperceptible nod, and only then did she smile with the rest of us.

Paul was quiet too, but I suspected his reasons were a lot more complicated.

“Speaking of moms,” Eric cleared his throat, drawing the attention away from Embry at last, “has anyone been talking to their parents? Mine are asking how the trip is going and I really don’t know what I should say.”

“I’ve been trying to keep my mom calm all day,” Angie sighed, holding her phone aloft. Even as she said it, the device beeped. “She wants me to text her every hour unless I’m asleep.”

“I didn’t even tell my parents,” Mike admitted, “too much of a pain.”

“The less people getting on Charlie’s ass, the better,” Paul sniffed. “At least then he can do his job and get us out of here.”

It sounded like he was about to say, ‘get _you_ out of here’, but he caught himself. Paul was impatient and hotheaded, but he wasn’t stupid. Implying that any of us weren’t keen on escaping the situation would just invite unwanted questions.

“We should try to get some sleep,” Jake insisted, and I was suddenly hyperaware of his arm around me. And how late it’d gotten. Was time somehow moving faster here? Soon it wouldn’t matter what anyone told their parents- we were due back in a couple of days. If we didn’t show, people were bound to notice. “Exhausting ourselves worrying isn’t going to get us anywhere. We’ll check in with Charlie again tomorrow.”

There were murmurs of agreement, followed by a scramble to figure out who was sleeping where. The mattresses were strewn about the floor in a tight maze, some side by side in the middle of the room, some lined along the walls. No matter where anyone slept, there wasn’t much privacy to be had. The closest was the only Queen-sized mattress in the house, belonging to Angie’s parents, which had to be placed between the leftmost couch and the half-wall dividing the kitchen and living room. Since it was the largest, Leah and I were taking that one.

“I’ll take a couch,” Embry volunteered, already sprawling on the biggest couch in the center of the room. “I can sleep anywhere.”

“I’ll take one too!” Eric’s hand shot enthusiastically in the air, waving back and forth. “I love sleeping on couches. Besides, I’m the shortest guy here. Just makes sense for me to take a shorter bed.”

“Jake volunteers too,” Embry cut in again, a bit too quickly. Seth looked like he’d been about to volunteer himself, but a sharp glance from Embry silenced him. “And you’re taking that couch right there, where I can see you.”

“What the hell, Call?” Jake bristled, his attention darting between the couch Embry pointed to and Embry himself.

“You and Miss Swan are a couple now,” Embry reminded him, mischief in his eyes. “I want to make sure I know where you are at all times. No one need to wake up to a secret midnight rendezvous in the bathroom.”

Jake opened his mouth to argue, but the laughter was already rippling through the room. He gave in with a smirk, pulling me tightly against his side.

“Why Em,” he drawled, “I didn’t know you were the jealous type. If you enjoyed sleeping with me so much, you could’ve just said something.”

“Sorry to steal him from you, Isabella,” Embry countered, playing along, “he’s just so damn cozy. Hope you don’t mind the competition.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, Em.” I grinned, fighting the blush threatening to creep up my neck. So far, I was successful. “You’re not competition.”

Embry reeled back, his hand clutching his chest dramatically, as a series of whoops and cheers filled the air. Jake doubled over, tears collecting in the corners of his eyes as he guffawed.

“Why do we choose to spend our time with boys?” Leah groaned, looping her arm through mine. “Come on, Bella. I’m dropping over here.”

Leah pulled me over to our chosen mattress, and soon everyone started to settle down. There was a bit of a commotion as we all tried to figure out who needed more blankets and pillows, who still needed to get in the bathroom, who needed water, and where the outlets were for phone chargers. By the time we were quiet, nearly a full hour had passed.

Sometimes, rarely, it was easy to forget what was going on. Simple things- like new relationships or inside jokes- were ever-present. They injected themselves into our lives whether we wanted them to or not, reminding us that things were good once and they would be again. It was a strange, melancholic optimism, and I could feel us losing ourselves to it as the conversations petered out the longer the night drew on. I didn’t fight it; I’d already learned to covet these moments of easy happiness, wherever and whenever I could.

And yet, I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t even try. It had nothing to do with Leah, the mattress, or anything else in the room, but my mind was just too occupied to settle. Maybe a walk would’ve helped, or a drink, or a snack, but I did none of those things. Nothing felt right, nothing was worth possibly waking anybody. For a while, I listened to the sounds of the others drifting off, trying to guess who was making which noises.

Jake wasn’t asleep either; I could tell from the lack of familiar snores. I had a feeling he wasn’t the only wolf in the room on high alert.

I didn’t bother keeping track of the time. It was late, that’s all I knew. My phone volume was turned all the way up, but I still checked it relentlessly for texts or calls, from Charlie or Emmett, it didn’t matter which. Everything was decidedly silent, just like the rest of the house.

“Embry, you’re up.”

The whisper came from Jake’s couch, and it startled me so badly that I almost jabbed Leah with my elbow. I thought Jake was making an abrupt comment about Embry’s state of wakefulness, but then I remembered. In all the commotion, I’d nearly forgotten that the Pack was keeping watch around the house in shifts.

Embry didn’t respond right away, and I kept quiet too. If Jake knew I was still awake, he might worry.

“Embry? Em-”

“I’m switching with him, Jake,” Leah announced suddenly, startling me again. I thought she was asleep; much like Embry, Leah slept like she was dead. “He didn’t get much rest last night. I’m more alert than he is.”

I watched through barely cracked eyelids as Leah shifted until she was seated, revealing that she’d more than likely never been asleep in the first place. Her clothes and hair were still perfectly in place, and she looked more awake than I’m sure I did.

As if to prove her point, some monstrous snores erupted from Embry’s couch.

“Thought you said he didn’t snore,” Leah joked, keeping her voice low so as not to disturb the others. I couldn’t see Jake from my position behind the couch, but I felt the rumble of his silent laughter.

“I forgot to account for his allergies,” Jake whispered back. “Wake me when you’re done. I’ll take next shift.”

“What about Bella?”

I froze, focussing hard on my breathing. I didn’t know if they knew I was awake, but if they didn’t, I wasn’t about to give myself away.

“What about Bella?” Jake repeated, shifting on the couch presumably to look at Leah.

“You’re going to leave her alone for a few hours? That’s not like you.”

I could picture Jake’s frown perfectly in my head- confused and a little irritated.

“I’m not leaving her alone,” he argued. “You’ll literally be in the bed next to her.”

“I’m not talking about when I get back,” Leah rolled her eyes. “I’m talking about right now. Are you coming over here, or aren’t you?”

If Jake had a reaction, it wasn’t a verbal one. There was a beat of silence, one that I struggled to read, and ultimately failed. I still couldn’t see Jake, so I could only guess at the look on his face.

Leah didn’t bother to wait for an answer, shuffling until she was poised to stand. As she moved, her head passed close to my ear and I could’ve sworn I heard her murmur ‘you’re welcome’ before continuing towards the hall.

So much for feigning sleep.

“I’m going to slip out the window in the guest room,” she told Jake, tiptoeing with grace through the maze of sleeping bodies. “I’ll close it behind me, but leave it unlocked so I can get back in.”

Jake must’ve nodded, because in the next moment Leah was stalking stealthily into the dark extremities of the house.

Silence.

I didn’t dare move after Leah’s departure, waiting with held breath for Jake to make a move. I didn’t know if he would take Leah’s advice, or if he’d opt to stay on the couch. I also didn’t know which one I wanted him to choose.

The quiet dragged, and I thought perhaps he’d fallen asleep after all, until I heard him shift.

“Bells?”

“Hm?”

More shifting, a near-silent creak, and then Jake was dropping over the back of the couch to land beside me on the mattress.

“Is this okay?” he whispered, searching my face in the dark. I could only just make out his features from the pale light on the stovetop’s display screen, but I was sure he could see me clearly. I nodded.

“Is everyone else asleep?” I asked uncertainly, rolling onto my side to face him. The last thing I wanted was for anyone to wake up and discover that, despite the joking and Embry’s ‘safety measures’, we actually had ended up in the same bed for any length of time. Jake shimmied until he was lying on his side too, mirroring me.

“Yeah,” he promised, allowing himself a small smile. “Leah might be the best wingman ever.”

“She didn’t work alone,” I pointed out, grinning. “I’d bet money on Embry’s involvement. He talks a lot of shit, but he’d be the first to pull something like this.”

“Oh, it was definitely a collaborative effort,” Jake agreed seriously, his hand appearing at my waist. My shirt had ridden up to my ribs, exposing my chilled skin to his scorching palm. I heard Jake swallow. “Would be a shame to let all that planning go to waste.”

“I am _not_ having sex with you in a room full of people, sleeping or otherwise.” I scolded, doing my best to keep my eyes trained stubbornly away from his bare chest. I always hated that Jake slept shirtless, but even more so now that I could actually do something about it. Hypothetically. “And don’t try to make me change my mind.”

“Give me a little credit here, Bells,” Jake pouted, his hand slipping to my lower back, his thumb tracing gentle circles. “I would _never_ try to make you change your mind about that.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but he moved before I could. Jake used the hand on my back to guide me underneath him, pinning me with his bulk. I gasped in surprise, his free hand covering my mouth to silence me as he supported most of his weight on his forearms.

“I’m just going to make you consider it.”

The words came out low and deep, leaving his lips like warm honey against my ear. Immediately, a shiver ran down my spine.

“You’re not playing fair,” I complained, though I was too breathless to sound even remotely convincing. I felt his mouth against my neck, his teeth grazing the sensitive skin beneath my ear.

“If you keep talking, you’ll wake the others,” he teased, using his knee to push my legs apart. He settled his hips tantalizingly against mine, wrapping his large hand around my thigh and securing it around his torso. I wanted to berate him, but the feeling of his body covering mine was too deliciously distracting. I quickly forgot the panic that struck me when he first pinned me.

“You’re the worst,” I breathed, tangling my fingers in his hair and guiding his head up so I could kiss him. To Jake’s credit, he didn’t boast, just settled into the kiss as smoothly and quietly as possible.

His kisses started out simple and sweet, a direct contrast to what the rest of his body was doing. I let myself be lulled by him, eyes fluttering closed and tension leaving my shoulders as he kissed me again and again, each one melting into the next with barely any room to breathe.

The room around us remained still and quiet, which was both terrifying and a little exciting. No one could see us from their own bed, but they might be able to hear us if they woke up, and they could clearly see that Jake wasn’t on the couch anymore. I tried not to dwell on that too much- the prospect of that kind of embarrassment alone was enough to make me squirm.

Luckily, Jake came up with an incredibly effective form of distraction.

His hand slid around the back of my neck, tilting my head to move with his. I felt his teeth against my lower lip, gently tugging until I relented, opening my mouth to him. Slowly and deliberately, his tongue pushed against mine, and I was lost in him.

The scent of pine overwhelmed me again, mixed with the spiced taste of Jake’s mouth. Everything about him was warm and woodsy, familiar and exciting all at the same time. My entire body thrummed with anticipation, even knowing that we couldn’t go further than this.

Jake shifted, his hips barely pulsing against mine. I arched into the sensation, my fingers scraping down his back.

“Shit,” Jake broke off, cursing under his breath. His hair was a mess, his eyes dark and unfocussed, and his muscles were taut with restraint. I blinked, trying to slow my rapid heart.

When he kissed me again, it was hard and rough, stealing all of my senses with the passion of his touch. With the little rationale I had left, I reminded myself to not make a sound.

Jake was right about one thing at least- he _was_ making me consider it.

Perhaps mercifully and perhaps not, he broke away to let me catch my breath, his lips moving instead to the hollow of my throat. He kissed there too, gently suckling my flushed skin, slowly moving down to my collarbone, and lower still-

I decided with a gasp that it had most certainly not been merciful.

My hands shot to his cheeks, pushing him firmly away from me. Jake glanced up, a wolfish grin springing to his mouth. I scowled.

“You’re going to get us in trouble,” I whined, squirming beneath him until he rolled off of me. He wanted to laugh, I could see it in the way his stomach tensed, but he resisted. When he was under control again, he held his arms out to me. I eyed him skeptically.

“No trouble,” he vowed, smirking anyway, “I promise.”

Despite the mischief in his eyes, I believed him. There was a trick to Jake’s honesty- it was subtle, and you could never quite put a finger on it, but you always knew when it was there. I let Jake envelope me in a hug, snuggling me into his chest and surrounding me in warmth. I smiled, feeling my muscles relax even with my heart racing and my lips swollen from his kiss.

“When we get out of here,” Jake whispered in my ear, his words soft and wistful, “I’m taking you somewhere just the two of us. And no distractions.”

My stomach flipped at the suggestion in his tone, and it made me wonder if I would ever get a good night’s sleep again with Jake around. Even in situations where we couldn’t do whatever we wanted, he was keeping me awake with simple anticipation. I wasn’t surprised that he was good at that.

Slowly though, I did start to drift off. Jake’s even breathing, the heat coming off of him, and his occasional snores were so familiar to me that I forgot we weren’t in my room. Or his room. Or on one of our couches. For just a second, wrapped up in my best friend, I was home.

And that was enough to push me over the edge.

It was near dawn when I finally woke, groggy and disoriented.

The room was only slightly lighter than it had been when I fell asleep, and at first, I wasn’t sure what woke me. No one was up and about, no one even lying in bed on their phones. I could still hear Mike and Jess, both snoring, and Eric’s erratic breathing, so then why-

I realised with a jolt that I couldn’t hear Jake; his snoring should’ve been the loudest, pressed directly against my ear.

“Jake-?”

His hand clamped down on my mouth, silencing me. Was one of the others starting to wake up? Angie was a quiet sleeper, so I couldn’t tell if she was still sound or not. Was Leah coming back?

I tilted my head back to look up at him, his features clearer now in the early morning light. He was staring, transfixed, at the door. I followed his gaze but saw nothing.

“What is it?” I murmured against his hand, struggling to catch up. My mind was still hazy, having been roused unceremoniously from sleep by… something. Jake didn’t answer me, his eyes unblinking.

“What the hell is that?” Paul growled suddenly, louder than he should’ve. A few people started in their sleep, but didn’t wake. Jake whipped his head around, shushing him. “Leah?”

“It’s not Leah,” Embry insisted, sitting up. Jake finally allowed me to do the same, and I scrambled into an upright position as quickly and quietly as I could. The new angle didn’t help much; everything looked exactly the same as it had when we went to sleep that night. They were hearing something then, or perhaps smelling something, something that I couldn’t.

“Well if you jackasses won’t do anything about it,” Paul grumbled, pushing himself up. Jake jumped to his feet as well, pulling me with him. Until the danger had been assessed, he wanted me close.

“Don’t,” Jake warned, his arm securely around me as he talked. “We don’t know what’s out there. The humans are vulnerable-”

“Then wake them the fuck up and tell them to hide or some shit,” Paul snapped, “I’m going outside!”

“Paul!” Jake growled, moving to make a grab for him but stopping himself before he left my side, still unclear if there was danger or not. “I said do not open that door! _Paul_!”

Paul whirled, barely containing his rage enough to keep his voice quiet.

“I don’t give a shit what you said,” he hissed, “I’m tired of you acting like you actually have a say around here. _You’re not the Alpha, Jacob_!”

Jake recoiled like he’d been slapped, pulling his lips into a thin line. A shimmer of irritation swept through the others, and Embry rose with his shoulders squared.

“Jake is more of an Alpha than you are,” he threatened, carefully stepping around the mattresses. I knew it was only a matter of time until our activity woke the others; I just hoped we’d have an excuse by then. “Stop being such a prick, Paul. Listen to him.”

“I listen to _Sam_ ,” Paul insisted, his hand already on the doorknob.

“Well Sam isn’t fucking here, you insufferable dipshit!”

Embry’s volume was going steadily up. Jess rolled over in her sleep.

“It’s fine, Em.” Jake sighed, releasing the tension in his shoulders. I pressed my palm worriedly against his chest and got a small smile for my efforts. “Let him go.”

“It’s not fine,” Quil jumped in, following Embry’s careful path through the living room. “Paul-”

But it was too late. In all the bickering, Paul took the opportunity to open the door and was already halfway outside.

For one breathless moment, I thought we’d all been overreacting. Paul stepped through the entryway, looked to his left, and took another step. The air was still, the beach and forest slumbering as we should’ve been, not even the rustling of leaves penetrating the silence. And then Paul was gone.

I yelped, clapping my hand over my mouth just a second too late. Jess was up, quickly followed by Eric, both too groggy to figure out that anything was wrong right away. Embry and Quil crowded the front door, with Jake striding purposefully to join them, forgoing any attempt at being quiet.

“What’s going on?” Eric rubbed sleepily at his eye, watching me in confusion as I scrambled to join the Pack.

“Guys?” Angie now, sitting up uncertainly. “Is everything-?”

I didn’t get to hear the rest of her question. The heavy silence was suddenly shattered, a horrible, ground shaking roar echoing through the stillness.

“What the _fuck-_ ”

Everyone was awake and alert now, launching themselves to their feet and trying to rush to the door with us. Seth intercepted their path, holding his arms out.

“Wait!” He commanded, using an impressively firm tone that I didn’t expect from him. “There’s a bear outside! It- Paul’s dealing with it!”

“A _bear_?”

The incredulous exclamation could’ve come from any one of them, and I wouldn’t have been the wiser. My focus was on Jake and keeping up with him as he barrelled through the door, Embry and Quil hot on his heels.

“Bella, stay inside!” I heard him yell, but I ignored the command. Instead, I turned to Angie and the others, still being corralled by Seth.

“Stay here!” I told them, yanking the door open just enough to let me through. “We’re going to help Paul! And stay away from the windows in case the bear sees you!”

It barely made sense, but I was too frantic to think of anything better. With a solid thump, I slammed the door shut behind me and left Seth to clean up the mess.

The first thing that struck me was the cold. It was freezing, even for Washington, despite the warm sun that was cresting on the horizon. The second thing I noticed was that the night was no longer quiet.

Vicious snarls and a deafening howl ripped through the sky, shattering my ear drums. I pressed my palms against the sides of my head, trying in vain to drown out the noise.

“What _is_ that?” I gasped, knowing no one could hear me. Against the odds, Embry evidently did catch what I said, tapping my shoulder and pointing to the gravel driveway. I squinted into the darkness, blinking in shock as my brain tried to catch up with my eyes.

Paul was rolling around in the rocks, fully transformed, his jaws snapping violently at the air. At first, I couldn’t see what he was fighting, his teeth and spittle seemingly targeted at the world. As I looked harder though, I caught a flash of white pinned underneath Paul’s wriggling flank.

Two arms were around Paul’s ribs in a tight bear hug- not tight enough to hurt, but enough to keep him in place. The man was on his back, bracing his shoulders against the ground, to make sure Paul’s paws couldn’t find purchase on anything. Shockingly, even though there was a giant werewolf crushing him, he had a huge, challenging smile on his face. Immediately, I felt relief wash through me.

Emmett.


	12. Silver Bullet

“You know, it’s not very often I get to say this, but I did not see that coming.”

The tinkling, fairy-like voice came from somewhere to my left, far from the ongoing struggle between Paul and Emmett. I spun quickly, a smile lighting my face as I recognised who it belonged to.

“Alice!”

Edward’s quirky sister stood just outside the front door, dressed in a chic black sundress that would’ve been at odds with her usual style if not for the bright red French beret on her head and the fingerless lace gloves on her hands. I didn’t know if Alice followed a particular style exactly, or if she was just pretty enough to pull off whatever she wanted to wear. Either way, I was envious.

Alice gave me a gentle wave, keeping herself firmly out of view in case any of the others moved to look out the windows. Luckily for all of us, no one could clearly see the driveway from inside. Small blessings.

I scurried over to her, wrapping her tiny body in as tight of a hug as I could manage. Alice was the sibling I was closest to when Edward and I were dating- my closeness with Emmett came after the breakup. She’d always been a little weird, and the other students tended to avoid her at school, but everyone agreed that she was perfectly nice. Alice had always made me feel welcome amongst the Cullens and for that, I was grateful.

She hugged me back, gently but securely, before breaking away to point over my shoulder.

“I don’t suppose that monster has anything to do with these missing women?” Alice guessed hopefully, pinching her nose. “I’d love to dispose of it and its stink.”

“That’s Paul,” I clarified, shaking my head. Alice didn’t truly mean any harm- but I couldn’t let myself forget the guttural hatred between vampires and werewolves. “He’s got a bit of a temper, but he’s okay.”

“Mm, seems like a safe match up,” Alice rolled her eyes, “The family himbo versus the pack hothead.”

I snorted a laugh, turning back to the scuffle just in time to see Jake and Embry shifting. They circled Paul and Emmett, preparing to jump in if necessary, but the need never arose. Seemingly out of nowhere, Paul was let go and promptly shifted back.

“Rematch,” Paul growled, wiping spit from his mouth. “I want a rematch.”

“So I can embarrass you again?” Emmett teased, brushing the dirt off of his pale pink t-shirt. “Anytime, Lil Bow Wow.”

Paul snarled, his mouth already open to fire something back, but I didn’t give him the chance.

“Emmett!” I exclaimed, drawing his attention away from Paul’s sputtering face. His eyes finally found me, his entire face lighting up when they did.

“Bella!” Quick as a flash, Emmett was on the deck with us, sweeping me into an over the top, dramatic hug. My feet kicked out in surprise, trying desperately to get my body back on solid ground. Emmett was having none of it, jostling me like I weighed no more than a throw pillow. “Have you gotten smaller somehow?”

“Shut up,” I complained, fixing my hair as he set me down. Jake appeared in my peripheral vision, looking a few shades short of furious. I gave him a subtle wink, and while that did soften the irritated line in his forehead, it didn’t dispel his frown. Jake was always a bit jealous, but I guessed it would be a lot worse now that we were dating. Perhaps it had something to do with his alpha heritage. “Are you guys okay?”

“What?” Emmett laughed, a loud, booming sound that was almost as infectious as Jake’s. I always thought they’d be great friends in another lifetime. “Me? Hurt by ol’ Clifford over there?”

“If you hadn’t ambushed me,” Paul grumbled, “you wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“Any time, any place,” Emmett boasted, slinging his arm casually over my shoulders. I suspected he’d caught my little exchange with Jake, as he turned us around to face him with just a touch too much innocence in his expression, tugging me against his torso. “To be fair to me, I thought it was Jakey Boy here coming through the door.”

“Smart,” Jake raised an eyebrow, sizing Emmett up. I wondered what the likelihood was of him throwing a punch. “You knew you couldn’t take me without the element of surprise.”

“More like I thought you’d have a fighting chance if you were afraid for your life,” Emmett taunted, “but maybe I had the wrong target. From the smell of it-”

Emmett paused to bury his nose in my hair, inhaling deeply.

“-If I wanted you to have a sporting chance, I should’ve jumped Short Straw over here.” A wicked grin split Emmett’s face, resting his cheek on the top of my head. “You two have been getting a little cozy while I’ve been gone, hmm?”

“Careful, leech,” Jake smirked, his jaw tight, “that’s one button you don’t want to push.”

“Wanna bet?”

I rolled my eyes, already bored of the chest thumping.

“Can we focus, please?” Alice interjected suddenly, apparently as bored as I was. “We have a room full of people that still think someone’s getting attacked by a _bear_ \- of all things- eighty missing women, and a murder mystery that has ‘vampire’ written all over it. We have work to do.”

“Alright, alright,” Emmett sighed, letting me go. I stifled a laugh at the way Jake’s shoulders relaxed. “You said you had a body? Where is it?”

“Boathouse,” I pointed, “just over the hill there. You can’t miss it.”

“And you’re sure it was a vampire?” Alice frowned, thinking hard. I knew from experience that her gift of prediction didn’t work when werewolves were involved, but that didn’t make her useless. Alice was incredibly smart even without her gift. “You smelled it?”

Jake nodded, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Not one I’ve met before,” Jake admitted, furrowing his brows. “I don’t think they’re related to you either. Completely different smell.”

“Why would they be related to us?” Alice repeated, bewildered.

“Jake’s just thinking out loud,” I supplied, “right, Jake?”

“Sure, sure,” he grimaced, “not like we’ve had issues with your family before or anything. Don’t know why I’d jump to that conclusion.”

Emmett shrugged, conceding the point. Alice just looked exasperated.

“We’ll start tracking the vampire,” she volunteered, tilting her head toward Emmett for confirmation. He dipped his chin. “You… _wolves_ should stay here. Bella mentioned there was a human involved as well?”

“I did?” I blinked, trying to remember if I’d said anything about Corey. I must’ve, to Emmett at least, and he passed the information along to Alice. “We haven’t seen him in a while. He ran off after we confronted him.”

“You know what he smells like,” Alice directed to Jake, “we don’t. You can track him and keep an eye on the house. That makes the most sense.”

“I wasn’t arguing,” Jake bristled, but he brought up an interesting point. Why _wasn’t_ he arguing? I’d never seen Jake go along with anyone else’s plan so easily before, let alone one thought up by the very being he was built to destroy. It was a little… odd.

“Then it’s settled,” Alice clapped her hands together suddenly, bouncing off the steps in one almost invisible motion. It was still jarring, no matter how much time I’d spent around Edward, seeing firsthand how quickly vampires could move.

“I’ll try and calm everyone down,” I volunteered, still suspicious as to why Jake was being so cooperative but trying not to lose sight of the issue at hand. “I’ll tell them… Well, I’m not sure what I’ll tell them, but I’ll think of something.”

“Find out what Seth told them first,” Embry sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “He’s not the best liar. He panics and it just sort of turns into word vomit.”

“Maybe I should go in there instead,” Emmett joked, a wicked grin on his face, “I happen to know a thing or two about bear attacks.”

Alice slapped her palm to her face.

“Great,” I sighed, already planning a couple of excuses that I could use. “Maybe when Leah’s back we can-”

We all seemed to realise it at the same time, the second her name left my lips.

“Where’s Leah?” Quil voiced what we were all thinking, instinctively turning to Alice and Emmett. “Did you see her? Was she here?”

“You’re the only wolves we’ve seen since we got here,” Alice assured everyone, trying to take control of the situation before tempers flared again. “We have no idea where Leah is.”

“Or who she is,” Emmett added, less than helpfully.

“She was due back almost an hour ago,” Jake furrowed his brow, staring at the lock screen on his phone. I felt my heart skip, but I did everything I could to ignore it. Leah was one of the strongest, smartest, and most capable members of this Pack. Surely nothing could have happened to her without us knowing about it, right?

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Alice said soothingly, her full lips set in a slight frown. “We didn’t hear anything strange on our way here. I’m sure she just lost track of time.”

“Change of plans,” Jake announced, all but ignoring Alice’s reassurances. “Two of us will split off and track Leah. Seth and Bella will stay here, and the remaining two will track Corey.”

“Don’t tell Seth that Leah’s missing,” Embry directed at me, holding my gaze firmly. “If he knows his sister might be in danger, he’ll be distraught and distracted. If he asks, tell him Leah’s with us.”

I nodded mutely, unease slithering in my stomach.

“Everyone exchange cell numbers,” Alice instructed, not arguing Jake’s proposed changes. Reluctantly, they passed around their phones. “Text or call with updates. And if you’re coming back to the house, make sure to tell Bella.”

“You sure you can hold down the fort?” Emmett jabbed me with his elbow, probably leaving a bruise. I rubbed the spot indignantly, glaring up at him. “What? You were never the slyest fox in the henhouse.”

“I can handle it,” I pouted, only making him chuckle at my expense. I rolled my eyes.

“Bella is more than capable,” Alice smiled, pressing a quick kiss to my cheek. Jake stiffened again, and I couldn’t supress my own smile. “Alright. Let’s get going. The longer we’re out here, the more worried they’ll be getting inside.”

Then, like smoke in a mild wind, Alice and Emmett vanished.

“We’ll start after Leah,” Quil volunteered, nodding at Paul. Paul dipped his head in agreement. “When we find her, we’ll double back and catch up to you guys.”

At Jake’s assent, Quil and Paul disappeared into the trees.

“Corey’s scent is a bit weaker now, but we should be able to follow it well enough.” Embry hopped the railing, scanning the trees with focussed eyes. “We should be able to catch up to him in an hour or two, if we’re lucky.”

“Be careful,” I said to both of them, but my gaze lingered on Jake. He slipped his hand gingerly into mine, squeezing my fingers comfortingly.

“We’ll be back before you can miss us,” Embry promised, winking. “And then you and I can resume our never-ending battle for Jake’s affection.”

“Bring it on,” I teased back, “I can think of three things I have that you don’t that give me a definite advantage.”

I stretched, conveniently pushing my chest out to prove my point. Embry coughed out a laugh, shaking his head in disbelief. Jake was laughing too, although not as enthusiastically as I would’ve liked.

“Be careful, please?” He whispered against the top of my head, his arm going around me in a half-hug. I promised him that I would be, hugging him back but letting go quickly, not wanting to linger. If I acted like I was worried, then Jake would worry. Well, more than he would normally, anyway. For his sake, I had to be ok with this. I had to. “I’ll text you as soon as we find anything. And call me if anything happens.”

“I will,” I vowed, looking back over my shoulder at the house. “Seth’s here with me. I’ll be fine.”

“You’d better be,” Jake threatened, pressing a hard kiss against my lips. I kissed him back just as fiercely, until Embry whistled from the driveway. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Jake’s eyes met mine, communicating some unspoken fear that I couldn’t bring myself to examine, and then he was gone.

.

When I finally got back inside, it was utter mayhem.

“Bella!” Angie launched herself from the couch, ducking under Seth’s outstretched arms, and collided with me. “Are you okay? What happened with the bear? What was all that _noise_?”

Her hair was an absolute mess, her eyes wide and fearful. I tried to glean any information from Seth, but he looked as lost as I was. I suspected that he hadn’t said anything at all after I burst through the front door.

“We’re all fine,” I promised, directing my attention between Mike, Eric, and Jess too. “I swear, no one got hurt.”

“What happened?” Angie demanded again, her grip like a vice on my arm. My brain scrambled to make something up, something believable. I looked to Seth again for help, but he offered none.

“Leah got up to get a drink, which woke me up,” I started slowly, trying to stick as close to the truth as I could, “and we heard a noise outside. It was like a banging sound, but we didn’t want to go investigate with everything that’s been going on.”

Angie slowly began to nod along. Good sign. Believable. This was going well.

“So, we woke Paul,” I continued, gaining confidence with every word. “We knew he’d go check it out. But when he opened the door, he couldn’t see anything, so he stepped outside.”

Seth was watching me too, eyes wide with nerves. I swallowed.

“The door opening woke up Jake and Embry,” I added, “and they told me and Leah to stand back while they helped Paul, but before they could get outside we heard this awful roar and Paul yelled back that there was a bear trying to get into the bedroom window.”

“Oh my God,” Jess held her hand over her chest, worriedly eying the hallway with the bedrooms. “Is he okay? Did the bear see him?”

“He’s okay,” I reiterated, my heart pounding a million miles a minute. “But the bear _did_ see him. It started to charge, and that’s why we all ran outside. To try to scare it off.”

“Are they still out there?” Angie raced to the window, but this time we didn’t bother to stop her. There was nothing to see.

“No, well, yes-” I stammered, thinking hard. “The bear is gone, but the guys and Leah took the van to try and track down a wildlife office. They called, but the number wasn’t in service or something.”

It was weak. Very weak. But it was the closest thing to a ‘good’ explanation that I could come up with. Except that I couldn’t explain why the van was still in the driveway if Jake and the others had taken it into town. I just had to hope that no one went outside long enough to notice.

“They told us to stay inside in case it came back,” I shrugged, trying to sound genuine. I had no idea if it was working. “Jake said he’ll text me when they get everything sorted.”

“Missing women and bears?” Mike groaned, collapsing back onto his mattress. “This is officially the worst vacation ever. Why didn’t you tell us there were bears around here, Ang?”

My heart nearly stopped. I’d almost forgotten that Angie would know if bears were an uncommon sight in these woods. I turned to her, afraid of what I’d see, but she was staring at the ground with an embarrassed blush on her cheeks.

“I didn’t think I had to,” she murmured, twisting her t-shirt in her hands. “I haven’t seen one here since I was nine, but they’ve broken our garbage boxes a couple of times. I didn’t think we had to worry about them.”

I blinked, surprised at my own luck.

The conversation shifted then, to the others telling their own stories about bear encounters. Seth was able to sneak over to me, asking the other question I was dreading having to answer.

“What happened?”

I explained as best I could, everything from Emmett and Alice showing up, to how the groups divided themselves. I took Embry’s advice though, implying that Leah had gone with them instead of Quil and Paul currently looking for her. If Seth thought I was being dishonest, he didn’t show it. On the contrary, he visibly relaxed.

“As much as I don’t like the Cullens,” he shrugged, giving me a half-smile, “they’re good at what they do. I think this is finally almost over, Bella.”

Despite the apprehension forming in my gut, I agreed with him.

One way or the other, this nightmare was almost over.


	13. Invasion of the Body Snatchers

My phone stayed infuriatingly quiet for the rest of the day.

I lied about that, of course. I told Angie and the others that Jake was keeping me updated every hour or so, and that they’d been held up at the animal control office all day. I was pretty impressed with myself, as a matter of fact. After the first couple of questions, the lies rolled easily off my tongue- even if I had absolutely no idea if what I was saying was anywhere close to what actually happens at an animal control office. My only solace was that no one else seemed to either.

‘They’re giving statements now.’

‘They’re trying to piece together a timeline.’

‘They’re giving a description of the bear so they can determine a species.’

‘They’re in contact with local biologists to see if it can be tracked.’

‘They took a break to get some lunch.’

‘No, the officials aren’t worried. This is just procedure.’

‘Yes Seth, Leah is with them.’

The last one left a sour taste in my mouth. I trusted Jake enough to know that if I hadn’t heard from him, it wasn’t necessarily something to worry about. He tended to hyper-focus on the task at hand, and I wasn’t surprised that I hadn’t gotten any texts or calls.

Alice and Emmett were practically unkillable, I wasn’t worried about them either.

The fact that I hadn’t heard from Quil or Paul yet though, that made my stomach churn uncomfortably. Leah should’ve turned up long before now, especially if she was unharmed. What did it mean, that they hadn’t found her yet?

I tried not to dwell on it too much, knowing that if I did, Seth would figure out something was wrong. He was our only onsite defense; it was dangerous for him to be distracted. Besides, what could he do to help from here?

Maybe I was just convincing myself this was the right thing to do, but that was something else I had to put on the back burner for now.

Angie was in the middle of scrounging up something for supper. We didn’t have much in terms of substance, since they never did make it to the grocery store, but she was confident she could put something together. Last time I checked, Mike and Eric were cleaning up the place, and Jess was trying to take a nap while Seth helped Angie in the kitchen. That was about an hour ago, before I disappeared into our old guest bedroom.

I told everyone that I had a headache and I just wanted to sit in a dark room for a while, but really I just wanted to get away from the questions. The lies came easier sure, but they still exhausted me. For once, I didn’t want to feel like I was walking on eggshells.

The sun was hanging low in the sky now- not dark, by any means- but warmer than it had been a few hours ago. The trees were splotched with reds and oranges, yellows and pinks; it almost looked like autumn. I would’ve taken a picture, if I didn’t want to forget this week entirely the second I got home.

My eyes darted inadvertently to the closed-door Jake had shoved me against just the day before. Okay, I guess I didn’t want to forget _everything._

The smell of bacon seeped into the room, awakening an aching hunger in my stomach. Maybe it was time to escape my reprieve after all.

I was sprawled on the floor, my limbs akimbo, but I struggled to my feet now. I turned to the door, stretching my sore joints, when a sudden knock startled a tiny yelp out of me.

It was coming from the window.

I whirled, arms up, ready to scream and defend myself if necessary, but the sight instantly sent a wave of relief through my limbs.

“Leah!”

She shushed me, gesturing angrily to the locked window. I rushed over to open it for her, again about to exclaim how happy I was to see her, when she clamped a hand over my mouth.

“I know what you’re about to say,” she sighed, shaking her hair out of her eyes. “And don’t.”

Other than the annoyed expression on her face, she looked unharmed. Her hair was a mess, her clothes were askew, but she was in one piece and that’s all that mattered to me. I stepped aside to let her crawl into the house, but she did no such thing.

“What happened to you?” I whispered, pulling her hand from my mouth. Once she was confident I wasn’t about to alert the others to our rather unexplainable circumstance, she didn’t try to quiet me again. “Where have you been? The others left to look for you hours ago-”

“I know,” Leah huffed, leaning back on her haunches. The windowsill was lower to the deck than her hips, so she had to crouch to peer into the opening properly. “I ran into Quil and Paul on my way back here. I got ambushed chasing that stupid human.”

“Corey?” I gasped, brows furrowed. “He jumped you? How-?”

“The weasel set a trap,” Leah answered snippily, glancing over her shoulder into the trees. Seeing nothing, she turned back to me. “Paul and Quil ran after him. I told him I’d grab you, and let Jake and Embry know where we were going.”

“Where _are_ we going?” I asked uncertainly. “I thought Jake wanted us to stay at the house-”

“The vampires said something about needing you,” Leah shrugged, baring her teeth at the mere mention. “They can’t approach Corey without alerting his vampire friend, so they want to use you to try to cover their scent. A wolf might make them bolt, but a human shouldn’t scare them away. We’re supposed to meet them, Paul, and Quil near the highway.”

My mind caught on something about that plan, but I didn’t have time to dissect it. Leah was already slinking off into the forest.

“Leah?” I hissed, leaning my upper body out the window. “Leah!”

“What?” She snapped back, appearing from behind a tree near Jess’s car. “What’s wrong?”

“Shouldn’t we tell Seth where we’re going?” I complained, unease creeping up my throat. Whether I was with Leah or not, I didn’t want to go into those woods. At least if Seth was with us, we had numbers on our side.

“Seth already knows,” Leah dismissed, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the tree trunk. “I texted him. He’s going to wait for Jake and Embry to get back and then follow us.”

I bit my lip. Something about that rang untrue, but maybe I was just paranoid. This was _Leah_ , after all. She’d never willingly lead me into harm’s way.

I was overreacting. I had to be.

“Okay, okay,” I sighed, hoisting myself onto the sill. It was only a short drop onto the balcony, and then an even shorter one off of the rail and onto the wet grass. “But if Jake gets mad at me for not waiting for back up, I’m pinning it on you.”

Leah laughed, shaking her head in exasperation.

“I think I can handle him.”

By the time I reached her, she was already several paces beyond the scope of the driveway, nose high in the air, tracking a scent that I couldn’t even begin to pick up. Her long legs made her strides double the length of mine, so I had to scramble to keep up.

Despite the late afternoon sun, it was dark in the forest. The foliage was so dense and layered that any light filtering down was squashed about five feet above my head. The further we moved from the bright safety of the house, the more I felt like the woods were trying to swallow me whole.

“How far did Alice and Emmett get?” I asked absently, ducking under a pointed branch just in time to save myself from a nasty forehead bruise. “Close enough to walk?”

“If it wasn’t close enough to walk, we wouldn’t be walking,” Leah chuckled, but I heard an underlying tone of annoyance. Maybe Leah was just in a bad mood because she hadn’t slept, but I wasn’t so sure.

Every step was getting heavier. My insides were screaming at me that something wasn’t right, something was off, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was. I pulled my focus away from Leah, listening instead to the world around me. I could hear trees rustling, critters skittering across the forest floor, distant waves crashing against the beach. If I strained, I could even hear cars on the distant highway.

Everything was normal.

Except that it wasn’t.

I tried again, this time lingering on the things I _couldn’t_ hear, footsteps? Mine and Leah’s, but no other. Breathing? Again, mine and Leah’s. I didn’t have the prickling sensation of being watched or followed, but something was definitely wrong. If only I could figure out what it-

My phone buzzed, startling me out of my senses. I fumbled to rip it from my pocket, the overwhelming need to keep quiet crashing over me like a tidal wave. Leah was far enough ahead that she didn’t hear my phone, or if she did, she didn’t react, so that was a good sign. If someone _was_ following- or looking for- us, I didn’t want to give away our position so recklessly.

Quil’s name flashed across my screen, accompanied by a text.

_We found Leah._

I blinked, the air going stale in my lungs. What…?

_Bringing her back to the house. She’s out cold. Tell Seth to meet us outside._

_Heard from Jake?_

I read the words again and again, seeing but not understanding. They’d found Leah. They were bringing her back to the house. She was out cold.

Impossible. It simply wasn’t possible. Leah was _here_ , right in front of me, talking to me! There’s no way she could be in two places at once. Quil must’ve made a mistake; maybe the texts came in late- the service wasn’t all that great out here- or maybe they found another girl and thought she was Leah.

Except Quil wouldn’t make a mistake like that. Paul wouldn’t make a mistake like that. Leah didn’t say anything about being knocked unconscious, and if Quil and Paul were just ahead of her, then they would’ve joined us by now, unless-

Unless this wasn’t Leah.

I gulped, my throat suddenly achingly dry. She looked like Leah. She sounded like Leah. She even walked like Leah. But in that moment, I knew- the feeling I’d had, the sense of wrongness that permeated the air as we disappeared into the woods. She wasn’t Leah.

_80 missing women._

_Walked into the woods, like they were called by something._

_Vanished without a trace._

“Hey Leah,” I hedged, trying to sound casual. “I talked to Jake after.”

“Oh yeah?” She still sounded so normal, so real. I took a steadying breath.

“Yeah,” I looked around, memorizing every detail that I could. A Y shaped tree there. A shattered stump over there. A stream somewhere to the right. “I told him what you said, about not finding any evidence of wolves being able to choose their imprint. He didn’t take it too well.”

I waited, my heart caught in my throat.

“Well it’s not like he can do anything about it,” Leah shrugged, sending a jolt of ice through my veins. “He’ll just have to deal, won’t he?”

“I guess so,” I murmured, my phone hanging from my wrist like a brick. I tried to stay calm, tapping out a reply to Quil’s texts.

_In trouble. Come quick. Woods. Someone that looks like Leah._

I didn’t know if he would understand all of it, but the ‘in trouble’ would be enough. I sent the message and opened another one to Jake, but before I could blink, the phone was snatched from my hands.

“You kids and your phones,” Leah shook her head, sighing. I hadn’t noticed her approaching me, but now she was within a foot of my face. I reeled back, falling gracelessly onto the ground. “Don’t you ever stop to smell the roses?”

“Who are you?” I demanded, abandoning all pretenses and scrambling backwards in the dirt. A twig jabbed the flesh of my palm, making me wince, but I didn’t dare take my eyes from Leah. “Why do you look like my friend?”

“Neat little trick, isn’t it?” she twirled, showing me the full effect of her disguise. “But I’m afraid I can’t keep it up for very long. I’ll have to let Corey explain.”

As if summoned, Corey appeared from behind a cluster of evergreens, wearing that hideous denim jacket of his. I was really starting to hate that thing.

“You _did_ have something to do with this!” I accused, feeling somehow both betrayed and vindicated all at once. There was shock too, but it was muted, suppressed by the sudden thrumming of instinct in my veins. Survival just became the most important thing on my mind- I could be shocked later.

Corey didn’t bother to put up a front, instead directing his attention at Leah.

“Throw me her phone before you evaporate,” he said lazily, holding out his hand. Leah tossed my cell into his waiting grip, and almost as soon as she did, she began to disappear.

I don’t mean like Alice or Emmett. She didn’t ‘leave’ in the way a vampire would. She just… dissolved. The lines of her image began to blur, fading until she was no longer solid, her features wisping away into the tree branches.

“What…?” I breathed, staring blankly at the space where Leah had been. Somehow, I knew this wasn’t some sort of weird transportation thing. The woman was gone, vanished, blown away with the wind, like she’d never been here in the first place.

“Don’t ask me how it works,” Corey shrugged, easily approaching me where I was still sprawled on the ground. “She didn’t explain it much.”

“Who didn’t explain?” I demanded, wracking my brain for answers I didn’t have. “Why did that person look like Leah?”

“She can copy faces,” Corey drawled, pocketing my phone. I saw the screen flash with a text, but I couldn’t tell from who. Corey didn’t notice or care. “Faces, voices, movements, all that. She can basically pluck a human out of thin air, but they don’t last long. Maybe an hour, if she really tries. They’re kind of like illusions I guess.”

“Who?” I tried again, sliding back with every step he took. I didn’t think he’d let me get to my feet from this distance. “The vampire you’re working with?”

It was a gamble, but there was no time to pretend like either of us didn’t know exactly what was going on here. Corey apparently agreed with me, nodding sagely and glancing for a second out into the trees. I slid further back.

“She’s amazing,” Corey sighed wistfully, the closest thing to fondness in his expression that I’d ever seen. “She did all this, you know.”

“The missing women?” I guessed. Corey nodded again.

“She snatched every one of them.” Admiration in his voice now, as clear as day. “It was incredible to watch. Sometimes I still ask myself how she pulled it off.”

I thought back to how elated I’d been to see Leah, how unquestioningly I’d trusted her and how unabashedly I’d followed her into the woods. Unlike Corey, I didn’t have to wonder how she’d pulled it off.

“Why?” It was a stupid question, but it was the first one that popped into my head. As Corey spoke, he was distracted. If I could shimmy far enough away to get up and run, I might be able to make it back to the house. “Why is she doing this?”

“To get to you, of all people,” Corey snorted, shaking his head. “Don’t ask me why. She didn’t say, and I didn’t care to find out. She wanted you, and that was good enough for me.”

“Me?” I repeated, startled into pausing my retreat. Only for a second. “What the hell does this have to do with me? And how do you fit into it?”

“Like I said,” Corey rolled his eyes impatiently, “I have no idea what this has to do with a plain Jane like you. All I know, is what’s in it for me.”

I thought I’d have to ask him what that was too, but he saved me the trouble. Corey reached into his pocket, producing a hunting knife the size of my forearm. I sucked in a breath.

“If I bring you to her,” he grinned, a malicious, disgusting thing, “then she’s promised to change me.”

I didn’t have to ask what he meant, and I didn’t have to ask why. Most people would’ve, maybe, but not me. I understood all too well the allure of becoming a vampire. I knew the desire, knew how it festered and unfurled inside your bones, burning so hot you think you’d do anything to satisfy it.

Corey wanted what I once did, but he was willing to go much farther to get it.

I also knew that Corey wasn’t the problem here. Sure, maybe he was my _immediate_ problem, but he was just a pawn. The real threat, the vampire, had yet to show her face.

I just hoped I’d still be alive when she did.


	14. The Wolf Man

I wasn’t sure how long it had been.

Corey didn’t let me escape, despite my most valiant efforts. I managed to bolt a couple of steps before he tackled me to the ground, filling my mouth with soil and ripping my jean shorts. I didn’t get another chance after that, as he kept his grip locked on my wrist.

He didn’t talk, either. True to his word, Corey knew very little about why I was here and what his vampire friend wanted from me. I tried prodding as much as I dared, giving that up nearly as quickly as my escape attempts. The one truth I’d pegged about Corey from the very beginning: he wasn’t much of a talker.

My only choice was to sit quietly and wait.

Wait for what, I wasn’t entirely sure. Quil and the others would be searching for me, I knew that without question. As soon as word got back to Jake that I was in trouble, he’d tear the forest apart. Was I waiting to be rescued? Yes, and no.

Maybe it was just my morbid curiosity, but I almost wished the vampire would find me first.

I didn’t want to die, of course. I just wanted answers, and I was so close to getting them. To be pulled away now, when the final piece to this puzzle was in reach, would leave a bitter taste in my mouth.

The sun continued to sag beyond the trees, casting an orange glow along the tips of the branches. I couldn’t have been sitting with Corey for more than half an hour, and yet it felt like a lifetime.

Where was Jake? Leah? Alice and Emmett? Were they ok? What about the others, back at the house and no doubt wondering where the hell everyone else had run off to?

My stomach clenched uneasily and I felt tears prick the corners of my eyes, just as Corey tensed beside me.

I followed his suddenly sharp gaze, unsure what I wanted to find there, but I couldn’t see anything. The trees were dark, the forest quiet, but his attention was fixated between two towering oaks.

The space was empty, and then it wasn’t.

As if emerging from thin air, a woman floated into the clearing. She was petite, lithe, unintimidating, but with an ethereal beauty that made you want a second look. Her skin was the colour of a faded photograph, and I guessed she would’ve been tan had she still been alive.

The vampire smiled at Corey, brushing her thick, aubergine hair free of her neck.

“Right on time,” she sighed happily, prancing across the grass. She was dressed in modern clothing- tight fitted leggings, teal tank top, and a cinched white cardigan- but everything about her was ancient; from the way she moved to the subtle lilt of her voice. This woman existed long ago, in an era I could only read about in history books.

To my dismay and confusion, I had no idea who she was.

Somehow, I expected everything to make sense when I saw her. Something would click into place, some lost clue that I was missing, but I was drawing a blank. That was worse, I think, than if I did recognise her.

She laced her fingers together dreamily, regarding Corey with the pride of an owner teaching a dog a new trick.

“You’ve done splendidly,” she cooed, and Corey’s shoulders sagged in relief. “I’ve bought us some time with the wolf posse, so let’s get right down to business, shall we?”

Corey hauled me up with him and shoved me unceremoniously forward, and I had to react quickly to stay on my feet.

“This is her?” The vampire curled her lip in my direction, her bright red eyes scanning my body with a disdain rivalled even Paul’s fierce scowls. “I was hoping she was just… horribly unphotogenic.”

I scrunched my brow in confusion as she pulled out her phone, scrolling.

“These pictures weren’t taken under the best circumstances, so I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt.” The vampire shrugged, angling the screen so that I could see what she was talking about. When I did, my heart sank.

I _was_ hearing the camera shutter on a smart phone before. Photos of me were littered throughout her camera roll- in town, on the beach, at the restaurant, even inside the house- Corey and his vampire friend had been stalking me all week.

“Why do you have these?” I squeaked, my voice faltering. I wasn’t feeling as brave as I hoped I looked, and I certainly didn’t sound it.

“I had to make sure I had the right girl this time,” she slipped her phone back into her pocket, clicking her nails together as she did so. “I got it wrong so many times before, and sissy was getting worried about making a scene.”

_Sissy? But-_

She said it with an air of boredom and exasperation, like drawing attention to herself shouldn’t have been a concern. My eyes darted to Corey, watching her with a loving adoration that left me shaking.

“But I got it this time.” The vampire clapped her hands together, eying me again with renewed enthusiasm. “Now, I just have to change you, bring you to sissy, and this horribly dull week will finally be behind me.”

Sissy again. Hearing the word twisted my gut into a knot of certainty, making bile rise in my throat- there was still someone else involved. In all our discussions, in all our speculating, we never guessed we could be dealing with _two_ vampires.

How could we have been so stupid?

I should’ve been more shocked to hear that she planned to change me, to make me a vampire like I’d wanted so long ago, but I wasn’t. The information slipped easily into place, like a key into a lock. If she wanted to kill me, I would’ve been dead a week ago, I knew the truth of that deep in my bones. This was the only other possible outcome. I just didn’t think of it before.

“What about me?” Corey cut in quickly, stepping away from the trees. A flash of anger sparked in the vampire’s eyes, but she squashed it down before facing him. “You promised to change me too. Can we do it now? Please, Alecia?”

The name meant nothing to me, or perhaps I was just numb now. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that this vampire was a stranger to me.

But maybe her sissy wasn’t.

“Dear heart,” Alecia cooed, running her razor thin nails through Corey’s shaggy locks, “I can’t change you now, not with Bella so close. You could kill her before she’s finished with her own change, and that just won’t do.”

I frowned, realising instantly that she was lying to him. Vampire transformations didn’t work quite like that. She could easily change us both now and get it over with.

“Then when?” Corey pleaded, cupping his hand over hers. Alecia paused in her soothing, going deathly still in that unsettling way vampires tended to be capable of. Corey gazed balefully up at her, pupils nearly consuming his entire eye.

“Patience, my pet,” Alecia purred, shaking Corey’s grip free. She trailed her nail along his jaw, pausing just beneath his chin. “Good things to those who wait.”

And then Corey was gone.

It happened so fast, faster than I could blink. One moment, Alecia’s fingers were poised delicately against Corey’s chin and the next, her entire hand was protruding from the bloody remains of his neck.

Corey didn’t even have time to scream.

I did, though. A strangled yelp ripped from my chest as Corey’s lifeless body slumped to the forest floor, a gaping hole where his Adam’s apple should’ve been. His limps twitched and jerked as he settled, buckling first at the knees and then at the hips, his skull cracking sharply against a stone embedded in the dirt. My legs buckled and I scrambled backwards, careful to avoid the quickly pooling stain of red spreading through the grass.

“There now,” Alecia hummed, licking the remnants of Corey’s blood from her pale wrist, “that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

His wide eyes seemed to horrifically agree with her, the shock and hopeful pleading frozen on his face forever in stark contrast with the nauseating wound in his throat.

Corey was dead.

Alecia forgot him just as quickly as she’d killed him, stepping lazily over his corpse and making her way back to me. I struggled to tear my eyes from Corey, still expecting him to jump up, to roll his eyes and complain about this whole mess, to do something, but it wouldn’t happen. I knew it wouldn’t happen. Not anymore.

“What do you _want_?” I whispered, refusing to look directly at Alecia. Corey had faced her openly, and look where that got him. I heard her sigh from somewhere above me, flinching as her nails brushed over my hair.

The same nails that had nearly decapitated Corey.

“Humans,” she sniffed, “always so fixated on the details.”

Her fingers wrenched my hair from my head, hauling me painfully to my feet. I screamed, clutching my scalp to lessen the searing sting of her grip.

“ _I_ don’t actually want anything,” she clarified, using her other hand to trace patterns across my skin. Her nail mimicked the same route it had taken on Corey’s neck, and my heart thundered wildly in my chest. “I’m doing this as a favor to my sister. She’s very interested in seeing you turned.”

“Your sister?” I demanded, realising with a pang of panic that the patterns she traced were familiar. She was following my veins.

“Come now Bella,” Alecia tutted, her finger dipping lower, to my collarbone. I flailed my legs helplessly. “You’re a smart girl, and you’ve only met so many vampires in your insignificant life. Let’s try process of elimination, shall we?”

The pain on my scalp lessened as she loosened her grip, allowing me to think.

Alecia was right. I hadn’t met many vampires, and I’d only met one woman aside from the Cullens. But that’s…

“Victoria?” I guessed, not really believing it even as I said it. Alecia’s resounding cackle confirmed it though- I’d been right on the money.

“Beautiful, bloodthirsty, impulsive Tori,” Alecia sneered, something close to malice on her haunting face. “She’s been rather interested in you lately, ever since she screwed around with that pathetically sad creature in Alaska last year.”

Alaska.

“You don’t mean-?”

“Bitty, baby, Eddie Cullen,” Alecia spat, rolling her eyes so hard I thought she’d give herself a headache. “My God was he a sad sight. Maybe a bit skinny, but still a proud vampire, lanced through the heart by an ordinary, boring, human girl.”

The air froze in my lungs, weighing down my chest. Edward wouldn’t- he couldn’t-

“The two of them had a legendary little fling,” Alecia snickered, loosening her grip yet again. I could almost pull away from her, if I thought for even a second that I’d be able to get away. “And Eddie confessed all of his pain at losing the love of his life.”

“Edward would never want to hurt me,” I insisted, more to myself than to her. As hurt as Edward was, as much as I resented him, I knew he’d never conduct anything like this. Never. “You’re lying-”

“Oh, Eddie didn’t orchestrate this,” Alecia snorted, “he’d never have the balls. No, this was Tori. She lost her mate recently, as I’m sure you know.”

I did know. And the scar on my palm pulsated with each word.

“But Tori isn’t one to hold a traditional grudge,” Alecia lamented. “She’s got a twisted little mind, my sister. She grieved James, yes, but when she was done, she set her sights on Eddie. To her, he had beaten James and become the Alpha male, and therefore was worthy of her affections. It’s all a little… wolf-y for my tastes, but it keeps her murderous at least.”

She paused for me to laugh. I didn’t.

“So, when she found out that Eddie lost you to your own humanity, Tori decided to fix it.” Alecia suddenly let me go, and I fell to the ground hard, catching myself on my hands and knees. “She knew she couldn’t get close to you without your werewolf friends or the Cullens sniffing her out, so she enlisted my help.”

A twig crunched under her boot as she crouched, her perfectly red lips twisting into a smile.

“I have a couple of unique talents, you see,” she preened. “The first one you’ve already seen firsthand. A pretty good Leah impression, if I do say so myself. The other is a bit more complicated.”

“You can hide your smell,” I guessed, tired of listening to her shrill, arrogant voice. “To throw the others off your trail.”

“Good girl!” Alecia shrieked, delighted at my deduction. “That’s precisely it! Unfortunately, neither ability lasts very long, so I had to be strategic about everything. I would’ve gotten to you a lot sooner, but you’d be surprised how many brown-haired, pale, female humans live around here. It wasn’t until I sniffed out your little wolf pack that I figured it out.”

“What about Corey?” I snapped, angry at his death. Even if he was involved in this scheme, he didn’t deserve to die like that. No one did. “How does he fit into this?”

“I’m good at hiding my scent, but I’m not magic,” Alecia droned, like this was obvious. “I recruited him to scope out the target. Tori was furious with me once she found out how many people I’d killed. Said something about Eddie being a pacifist, of all things. I had to be certain I had the right girl this time, and I couldn’t risk getting close enough to check. Corey didn’t have that problem, since he was a mere human.”

“You used him,” I accused, much to Alecia’s amusement. “You used him to lure me out, and you killed those women to cover up your mistakes.”

“That about sums it up,” Alecia pursed her lips, regarding me with interest. “Once I change you, I’ll hand you off to Tori. I expect she’ll offer you to Eddie as a gift- his ex girlfriend, all vamped up and ready for his pleasure- but she might change her mind and kill you too. I’m not one to judge.”

“You can’t do this!” It was a useless thing to say, but I was trying to buy time. Quil had to have seen my text by now, someone had to be on their way. Alecia may be able to cover her own scent, but she wasn’t covering mine.

“What a cliched thing to say,” Alecia pouted. “Try again for something more interesting, would you? I like my prey to bite back a little.”

Her hand was at my throat then, nails piercing the sensitive skin beneath my ears. I cried out, clawing desperately at her wrists as she lifted me to her level.

“Do have the decency not to cry, won’t you?” she whispered, “I’d hate for your first day as a vampire to be tainted with something so disgustingly human as sorrow.”

She opened her mouth, canines glistening in the cold light, and then she stopped.

“ _Bella!_ ”

I whipped my head around just in time to see Emmett skidding into the clearing, his expression twisted in anger.

“Ugh,” Alecia huffed, curling her hand tighter around my neck. “What a pain.”

“Let her go.”

Alice’s voice now, appearing somewhere behind me. Alecia twisted, her fingers loosening like she might listen, but then her arm came around my neck and I was stuck again. She held me tightly, squeezing enough air from my lungs to make me gasp.

I couldn’t see Alice from here. All I could tell was that they had her surrounded, and they probably weren’t alone.

“Why in God’s name would I do that?” Alecia laughed, shifting her weight to her hip. “If any of you even think about getting close to me, I’ll snap her neck.”

“Won’t Victoria be angry with you?” I baited, trying to convey as much of the story to Alice and Emmett as I could. “She wanted me turned, not dead.”

“If you hurt Bella, you’re not leaving this forest alive,” Alice promised, sounding a bit closer now- or maybe it was just my imagination. “You’re outnumbered-”

“Oh yes, I know,” Alecia sighed, waving her free hand dismissively. “I can smell the wet dog from here.”

A blur of motion caught my attention, and as I watched, wolves began to appear. They materialized from the darkness, snapping and growling low in their chests, all snouts turned towards Alecia and me.

One wolf prowled forward further than the rest, his thick, russet fur alive with fury, his mouth set in a vicious snarl, baring his formidable teeth.

Jacob.

“You’ll have done all this for nothing,” I tried again, my voice coming out in a rasp. Emmett’s finger twitched, and I imagined he was struggling to hold himself back. “All those women, Corey, and you won’t even have me to show for your efforts.”

“You make the mistake of thinking I’m a goal-oriented person,” Alecia smirked wickedly, catching sight of the hateful glare Jake was giving her. She paused to run her finger delicately over my cheek, drawing a rumbling roar from his chest. “As boring as this little scheme of hers may be, this is still the most I’ve killed in a decade.”

After the wolves revealed themselves, Alice began to circle around so I could see her. She made eye contact with me, her expression lightly quizzical, as the pieces of Alecia’s plan slowly came together in her mind. Emmett still looked confused, but he didn’t have Alice’s power of prediction to fill in the gaps.

“Is it worth dying for?” Alice prodded, curling her lip in malice. As tiny as she was, Alice was still a vampire- she could strike fear in just about anyone, except perhaps other vampires. “If Victoria has told you anything about us, then you’ll know I can promise you a sure death unless you hand Bella over to us now.”

“I forgot how annoying you Cullens can be,” Alecia rolled her eyes. “Pathetic, really. The way your hearts bleed for mere fodder.”

Jake snapped his jaws. Alecia paid him no mind.

“Regardless of our intentions,” Alice continued, ignoring the insult to her family’s character. “It’s in your best interest to cooperate with us.”

“My best interest?” Alecia repeated, outraged. If Alice was needling her on purpose, she succeeded. Alecia evidently had some of her sister’s temper. “Don’t forget who holds the cards here, Baby Vamp. I’ll slice through her pretty little neck before you can-”

She thrust me towards Alice, her nails stabbing more tiny holes into my skin to prove a point. But Alecia made a mistake. In turning us, even just a little, her grip loosened just enough to let me breathe.

And then a wolf was tackling her to the ground.

It happened fast. Alecia was yanked away from me, the suddenness of the attack freeing me from her chokehold. I stumbled to the ground, gasping in welcome air, and then I was bombarded with fur.

Jake leapt over me, planting himself between my convulsing body and the chaos unfolding between Alecia and the Cullens. I staggered to my feet, using his ribs for balance, and coughing out the last of my fleeting breath.

Once he was certain I was unharmed, he growled, nudging me sharply backwards with his massive skull. I tripped again, backpedaling wildly with the force of his shove. At first, I was confused, but then my shoulders smacked into another wolf and I understood.

Jake waited until I was safely with another Pack member, and then launched himself into the battle.

Now that the way was cleared, I could see everything. Alecia was pinned to the trunk of a massive evergreen, burying her fist in the bark and ripping out jagged splinters to launch at her attackers. Alice moved easily between her projectiles, dancing gracefully through the trees like a trained ballet performer. Emmett was taking a more direct approach, hauling great, hulking boulders from the dirt and flinging them towards Alecia.

I recognised Paul and Quil circling, lunging fiercely whenever Alecia gave them the slightest opening, clamping their jaws on whatever they could reach. For all their efforts, Alecia was skilled. She seemed to know exactly what attack was coming from where; if she didn’t have small gauges peppering her skin from minor mistakes, I’d think she was clairvoyant like Alice.

My knees buckled. I didn’t notice they were shaking before it was too late, and I pitched forward into the dirt. The wolf behind me whined questioningly, and I belatedly recognised Embry’s distinct pattern hovering in my sights.

“I’m okay,” I promised him, refusing to take my eyes from the others. Jake had positioned himself between Alice and Emmett, showing impressive restraint for how angry I knew he must be. He flinched whenever Alecia made a strike for one of the Pack, but otherwise, he didn’t move.

I dug my fingers worriedly into the dirt.

They were planning something, they had to be. My thundering heart screamed that they were in trouble, that this could only end in blood, but my mind crushed the thoughts before they could form on my lips. I had to believe in them.

My faith was rewarded only a moment later.

Jake turned back to us for just a fraction, making distinct eye contact with Embry. Embry lowed in the back of his throat, and then his paw appeared next to my head. He braced himself over me, my back covered by his belly, and forced me to the forest floor, shielding me with his bulk. I whipped my head up in alarm, and then the woods exploded.

Paul and Quil jumped in unison, drawing Alecia’s attention to them. She whirled, bringing the remainder of the evergreen with her in an eruption of dirt, needles, and branches shooting off like shrapnel. The wolved ignored it all, with the exception of Embry who dipped his head to protect me from the flying debris.

Alecia sprung at Paul, nails and teeth bared in a shrill hiss, until Alice appeared at her back. Her slender arms latched onto Alecia’s torso, locking her in position before she could properly scream. Emmett was next, using his brute strength to body her to the ground. Alecia wriggled and screeched, fighting desperately to break free, but it was useless. She was stuck, completely and utterly subdued.

And then Jake bit off her head.

.

Charlie didn’t know what he’d been expecting when he finally arrived at the beach house.

Chaos, mayhem, panic, fear, any number of those things combined, maybe? He’d seen it all in his tenure, from varying sources no less, but it still turned his heart into a lump of cold stone whenever he got a case like the one his daughter had stumbled into. The fear was never easy to look at, doubly so when it was on the face of his own flesh and blood.

What he didn’t expect was to fling open his door and hear laughter.

Charlie threw himself from his car, hand twitching towards his holster, but the sounds that filled the air made him pause. The beach house wasn’t silent like it’d been when Bella and Jake arrived, though the building still stood like a stoic, pale blue warden, keeping guard of the line between the trees and the sand. The difference came from the gaggle of teenagers collected rambunctiously on the wraparound deck.

Eric and Mike were in the middle of a heated conversation with Paul and Quil. It looked like it could be an argument, if it weren’t for the mischief in their eyes. Both Paul and Quil looked a little wild with their hair stuck up at odd angles and a scrape here and there, but that wasn’t abnormal for the La Push boys. Angela and Jess were with Seth and Leah, worrying over a nasty looking gash on Leah’s forehead. She was in good spirits though, laughing along with whatever snide comment Jess had made. Seth looked more concerned than she did, keeping as close to her as he could without Leah snapping at him. She did anyway, Charlie could see that much from the car.

His eyes finally landed on Bella- dirt smeared and dishevelled, much like the people around her. Jake had nearly pulled her into his lap, his arms a firm vice around her middle. Charlie’s jaw twitched a bit at that, but he finished his appraisal before lingering on that paternal annoyance. They were seated next to Embry, who seemed to be challenging someone to an arm-wrestling match. It took Charlie a second to recognise the other two, but when his did, his hackles went up.

Emmett and Alice Cullen looked out of place with the rest, but their smiles were just as big. Emmett looked like he was considering Embry’s challenge, when everyone finally noticed that they weren’t alone anymore.

“Dad!”

Bella freed herself from Jake’s secure hold, rushing down the porch steps to meet him. She hugged him fiercely, making Charlie forget for a minute that there was any danger in the first place. His daughter was here, happy and safe, and that’s all he needed to know.

“About time,” Jake laughed, sidling up next to Bella and elbowing Charlie in the ribs for good measure. “What took you so long?”

Charlie gave him a disproving glare.

“What happened?” He demanded, eying the Cullens over the top of Bella’s head. He liked Alice and Emmett had never given him any trouble, but considering the circumstances that led him here, Charlie was skeptical. “Is everyone okay?”

“We’re okay,” Bella whispered, glancing over her shoulder. “But you’re going to want to let us do most of the talking.”

“Our cover story isn’t exactly top tier,” Jake shrugged, at least having the decency to look embarrassed, “but if it comes from a cop, we might just get away with it.”

“Cover story?” Charlie echoed, dread already forming in his chest. “What in blue blazes did you two get yourselves into this time?”

“Trust me on this one, Chuck,” Jake smirked, “you really don’t want to know.”


	15. Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! We’ve reached the end of this fun little project of mine. Thank you for the follows and feedback, it really helps keep me motivated when I feel like ripping my hair out lol. I hope you enjoyed my take on a Jake and Bella themed cheesy horror movie plot, and if you like my writing, feel free to check out some of my other works!

_Four Weeks Later_

The trees passed by in a collage of greens and yellows, oranges and reds, as Jake and I put Forks in our rear-view mirror for the second time this summer.

It was strange, leaving again so soon after the absolute mayhem that was our vacation at Angela’s beach house. Charlie hadn’t wanted to let us go, but with a little nudging from Billy, he eventually relented. College was a big step, and he didn’t want to keep us from what was supposed to be the best years of our lives.

Even if we did face off against a murderous vampire no more than a month ago.

The clean up after Alecia’s attack proved to be easier than any of us could’ve hoped. Emmett took the various pieces of her body and disposed of them ‘appropriately’, whatever that meant. The wolves took charge of cleaning up the broken trees and rocks, which looked kind of like a bomb had gone off nearby.

Admittedly, I didn’t get to see much of that. As soon as Alecia was dead, Jake phased back and brought me home. Leah was recovering in the living room, explaining away the gash on her head by telling everyone that there was a miscommunication and while I thought she was with Jake, Jake thought she was with me, and in reality she’d taken a sharp blow by the bear’s paw and was unconscious for a few hours. The others accepted that story with some shock and horror, but the truth would’ve been a harder sell- even I was having trouble digesting it all.

On her way back to the house to switch out with Jake for patrol, Leah ran into Corey. He was waiting for her, utterly invisible with his scent cloaked by Alecia’s powers. He struck her in the head with something heavy- probably a branch, but she wasn’t sure- and then dragged her back to the boathouse with Sawyer’s niece. The body covered her scent, so Paul and Quil had trouble finding her until she woke up and was able to make a hell of a lot of noise to draw their attention.

The rest of the pieces sort of fell into place after that, with the Cullens taking control of the situation as soon as any trace of Alecia was gone. Jake excused their presence by spinning some anecdote about running into them at the Animal Control office; since the Cullens had a reputation for being avid campers, it wasn’t so unbelievable that they’d be in the area on a summer camping trip. Charlie even managed to falsify a check-in for us in Emmett’s name.

Alice took full advantage of our original bear attack story, and began tracking down the various bodies of the women Alecia killed in an attempt to get to me. Most of them were scattered throughout the woods, but others were more difficult to find. It took her and Emmett about two weeks to locate everyone- all sharing some vague resemblance to me- and present their murders as a possible animal attack. After a bit of persuasion that I wasn’t entirely sure Carlisle had nothing to do with, local authorities concluded that a group of black bears in the area had somehow contracted rabies, as if that excused the carnage. Most people didn’t want to consider the alternative, so the cover story was swallowed without much complaint.

As for the truer side of things, I did my best to explain to everyone what Corey and Alecia had confessed to me, but I’m sure the shock confused some of the finer details. They all understood enough, and the hardest part of this cleanup was left to Edward’s siblings.

They had to tell him.

I hoped he wouldn’t take it too hard, but if I knew Edward, then I also knew that was an incredibly long shot. He was a master-class brooder, and knowing that he was indirectly responsibly for dozens of deaths would surely crush him. I didn’t envy Alice and Emmett in their task.

There was also Victoria to worry about, but that wasn’t a problem for me. The Cullens would be handling it from here.

“Pretzel.”

Jake directed his open mouth toward me, shaking me from my reflection with his demand for snacks. He was driving again of course, which meant that his hands weren’t free to fill his black hole of a stomach. I obliged, rolling my eyes for good measure.

“I thought you hated pretzels,” I grumbled, popping another one into his mouth pre-emptively. Jake shook his head adamantly, affronted at the very idea.

“I hate pretzels as a default,” he corrected, which still sounded the same to me. “But they’re okay when they’re the only thing left in the trail mix bag.”

“There are raisins in here too.”

“The only _edible_ thing left in the trail mix bag.”

I laughed, quickly abandoning the raisin I was going to grab for him.

Things were never going to be the same after this summer. Despite how eerily normal everything felt once we were home again, eighty women were dead, and a memorial service was to be held for them within the month. Their families would never know exactly what happened to them, but at least they would get some form of closure. It’s the best we can do for now, and we have to be content with that.

Our human friends were suspicious. I think they know that something strange happened at the beach house, but they’re too afraid to ask any more questions. That’s for the better; Jake and I might be leaving Forks, but a lot of them are not. The less they know about their supernatural neighbors, the better.

Jake held his mouth open again, wagging his tongue to grab my attention. I laughed, producing another pretzel for him.

The one thing that didn’t change- and somehow, the one thing that also changed the most- was my relationship with Jake. He was still my best friend of course, but he was more than that now. We were closer than ever, in different ways, and even though we kept it to ourselves and the Pack for the first week or so, people started to notice.

Once we got back from the beach, he didn’t want to let me out of his sight. At first, we were able to pass it off as him being his overprotective self after what happened with Alecia, but pretty soon we had to admit to our dads at least that we were in fact, dating. Charlie thought it was a piss-poor attempt at solidifying an already secured win in the prank war, until Billy pointed out that he’d found some of my clothes scattered around Jake’s room the other day.

Sleepovers got a lot less commonplace after that.

Not that it mattered now; Jake and I had an apartment picked out long before we went on vacation, and while Charlie could police us at home, in our own place, we were free to sleep wherever we wanted. Jake took great pleasure in pointing that out whenever he could, much to Charlie’s chagrin. I’m honestly surprised both of them made it to moving day in one piece.

“Hey,” Jake interrupted my contemplative silence, his voice just casual enough to be suspicious. “Do you mind if we make a quick detour?”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Just this place I heard about,” he shrugged, the picture of ease. I frowned. “It won’t take long, I promise.”

The signal light was already blinking, so I guess my answer didn’t matter too much either way.

The highway was sparse with foliage, pushed back from the asphalt to give drivers their best chance at spotting inbound wildlife. The road that Jake turned onto was much denser, like leaving an air-conditioned room and walking headfirst into a wall of mid-July humidity. The trees stood shoulder to shoulder like sentinels, blocking the belly of the forest from view.

“You know,” I teased, crossing my arms over my chest and settling back into my seat. “I always thought that when you finally murdered me, you’d throw me into the ocean or something.”

“You are a pretty shit swimmer,” Jake conceded, “but a murder in the middle of the woods is much more fitting.”

“And predictable.”

“So predictable no one would ever see it coming.”

I rolled my eyes, bringing my focus back on our unknown destination.

Jake drove until the pavement faded into gravel, and the massive evergreens crowded the road uncomfortably, their bushy fingers scraping the side mirrors as we passed by. I winced, but Jake seemed perfectly relaxed.

Eventually, the road ended.

I don’t mean that we reached any particular destination, I mean it just _ended._ One minute, gravel stretched out ahead of us in a roughly straight line and the next, my truck was nearly swallowed by pine needles. There was no parking lot, no circle of packed dirt to indicate that this was a well-traveled spot. There was just… trees.

“Come on,” Jake released his seat belt, kicking the door open and vaulting to the ground in one fluid motion. “We’re losing daylight here.”

“I was joking about the murder,” I ventured, cautiously following him. Despite how confined I felt in the truck, outside it was much roomier. The wind whistled past the thick fir trunks, sending a chill down my spine and chasing away the lingering claustrophobia. “But now I’m not so sure.”

“Just trust me, Bells,” Jake chuckled, winding his fingers through mine and tugging me along. “And watch your step. The ground is tough here.”

I wasn’t sure what that meant, until I left the relative comfort of the gravel road. The dirt here wasn’t so much packed as it was cemented together, hard and cold beneath the soles of my shoes. Rocks and twigs protruded from the earth like they were frozen in a bed of ice, firm and immovable. If I stumbled here, there would be no cushion for my fall.

Jake was determined not to let that happen, keeping me close enough to feel the heat radiating from his body. I welcomed the small comfort, leaning into his warmth as he led me down a winding path through the forest.

Unlike my last venture into the woods, I had no reservations this time. I trusted Jake with my life.

True to his word, we didn’t walk for long. The change in the air was instantaneous- we emerged from the thick of the forest like bursting through the surface of a river, gasping for breath, almost literally. The wind snatched deep into my lungs, thin and sinister, raking its icy claws through my chest.

It hit me then: we were very high off the ground.

The mountain range around us came into clearer focus as I adjusted to the reduced oxygen levels, my breathing evening out quickly in the wake of my awe. We were standing on a cliff face, much like the one next to La Push beach, but instead of staring into an endless sea, we were halfway up the basin of a rocky valley.

“Holy shit,” I muttered, blinking my wide eyes. Jake laughed next to me, his grip tightening on my hand like he was afraid I would fall. He probably was.

“It’s amazing, right?” He mused, following my gaze to the snow-capped mountain peak directly in the centre of our vision. The skyline was as picturesque as a postcard, each cloud, tree, and rock formation placed as perfectly as if they’d been staged. “Embry told me about it, if you can believe that.”

“What was Embry doing all the way out here?”

“Do you actually want to know?”

I laughed, shaking my head without actually moving my eyes from the view.

“I thought it would be nice,” Jake continued, tensing a little. He was uncomfortable, I realised with a jolt of surprise. “I know we’re not going far, and we’ll be back for the holidays, but I wanted us to see the best Forks has to offer before we move on to bigger and better things.”

He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.

“It probably sounds stupid,” he chuckled nervously, “but-”

“It’s not stupid,” I insisted, sudden and fierce. “I think it’s beautiful. And it’s the perfect last stop before we finish our road trip. Thank you for bringing me here.”

Jake’s muscles relaxed, and he turned to beam down at me.

“Thank you for giving me a chance,” he smirked, and I knew he didn’t just mean the mountain range. I smiled openly, resting my head delicately against his shoulder and absorbing the scent of sap, leaves, and the cleanest air I’ve ever breathed.

“I’m sorry it took so long,” I murmured back, sighing as his arm wound tightly around my waist, securing me to him, shielding me against the wild wind.

We stayed like that, watching the sky, until the clear light faded to yellow, and we knew we had to get moving before night descended on us. We had places to be, after all.

A small part of me knew that I could never really be sure about my future. Jake promised me the world, and I have no doubt that he meant every single word of it, but even he won’t know if he’s successfully changed his predetermined path until he meets his imprint, or doesn’t.

But I’m okay with that.

Jake loves me. Jake loves me more than I could ever understand, and in order to be with him, I need to trust him. I do trust him, and so, I’m not afraid. When it came down to a choice between the universe and me, Jake chose me. Jake will always choose me. And in return, I will always choose him. Together, we can overcome anything. I truly believe that.

A long life full of adventure, joy, and love awaits me, and I will spend every second of it with my partner, my soulmate, my friend, Jacob.

**The End.**


End file.
